RIB LAKE BASEBALL - Redmen open with extra-inning thriller, then 16-2 blowout win

RIB LAKE BASEBALL

The Rib Lake baseball team got about everything accomplished it wanted to on its southern trip Saturday while beating De Soto 9-8 in a nine-inning thriller and Wauzeka-Steuben in a 16-2 rout in its first two games of 2024.

The De Soto game was a scoreless pitcher’s duel through four innings and was still a 2-0 game through five and a half when it broke down and looked more like a first game of the season. But the backand- forth nature of the last few innings made for an entertaining ending.

Wauzeka-Steuben, a team that was 15-5 last year, couldn’t find the strike zone consistently, walking 13 batters and hitting three more in Rib Lake’s five-inning, game-two win.

“I thought the kids overall played well,” Rib Lake head coach Dick Iverson said of the games played in Stoddard. “The weather was really nice for the second game. It was a little chilly for the first game. The second game was clear blue skies, sunny and no wind. That was good. Everybody got at least one at-bat and everybody played in the field. I got to throw the five guys I wanted to throw. That worked out perfect for us.”

Senior co-captain Jackson Blomberg probably had the most impressive pitching outing, shutting out De Soto through four innings. He struck out five, walked two and allowed just one hit.

“Jackson threw extremely well,” Iverson said.

Rib Lake got on the board in the top of the fifth. Briley Leonhard was hit by a pitch. Donovan Sutherland re-entered the game and ran for him. He went to second base on an errant pickoff throw, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on Talon Scheithauer’s sacrifice fly.

Seth Borchardt worked a scoreless bottom of the fifth and the Redmen got one more run with a two-out rally in the top of the sixth, though it could’ve been more. Tyler Matyka got hit by a pitch to drive in the run, but Rib Lake left the bases loaded.

De Soto finally got something going in the bottom of the sixth and it was enough to give the Pirates the lead. A hit, four walks issued between Borchardt and Scheithauer and another hit made it 3-2.

Rib Lake answered with a three-spot in the top of the seventh to take a 5-3 lead.

Scheithauer drew a leadoff walk and stole second. He scored on Andrew Wudi’s base hit. Blomberg reached on an error. With one out, Dominic Quednow’s grounder scored Wudi and Brady Heiser had a base hit to knock in a run. The Pirates got an out at home plate to end the inning, but Rib Lake was three outs away from a win.

Unfortunately, an error and a walk gave De Soto life to start the bottom of the seventh. A strikeout and a fly ball got Rib Lake an out away from victory, but an errant throw past third base on a stolen base attempt and then a fielding error brought in the tying runs.

Two walks in the top of the eighth led to Wudi’s go-ahead RBI single, but De Soto answered with three hits and a run to make it 6-6.

In the top of the ninth, Quednow walked and Heiser followed with his first varsity home run. Rib Lake loaded the bases and scored when Blomberg got hit by a pitch but left them loaded again.

De Soto made things interesting again in the bottom half, stringing together four hits to score twice, but a flyout finally ended it.

“It was a typical first game,” Iverson said. “They made errors at the wrong times. We made errors at the wrong time. Overall defensively I thought we did fine. It was just when we had (errors) they were costly. When they strung hits together, in that last inning, they weren’t hit that hard, they were just finding holes. They only maybe had two or three solid hit balls. I told the guys it wasn’t like they were just scorching us. They just kept finding holes. That’s baseball.”

Scheithauer picked up the win in relief, covering the last 3.2 innings. He struck out four, walked two and gave up six hits and five runs, three of which were earned. Borchardt walked four and allowed a hit in his 1.1 innings.

Heiser hit the ball hard three times and went two for three. Wudi was two for five, Matyka hit a double to left-center and Quednow and Borchardt each went one for four. The Redmen drew six walks.

“It was good that the kids just didn’t give up after falling behind,” Iverson said.

Game-two win

Rib Lake fell behind in game two as well, but it wasn’t for long.

Wauzeka-Steuben took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first, but Rib Lake’s threerun rallies in the next two innings made it 6-1.

Quednow walked to start the secondinning rally. He stole second and went to third on a wild pitch. A walk and a hit bat- ter loaded the bases and a dropped fly ball in rightfield scored two. Wudi’s RBI single capped the inning.

Up 6-2 in the fifth, Rib Lake scored 10 runs on six walks, two hit batters, three base hits and an error.

Quednow pitched the first three innings, struck out five, walked two and allowed a hit and two runs, one of which was earned. Borchardt threw a scoreless inning with two strikeouts and Wudi pitched a quick and scoreless fifth, allowing one hit.

Wudi was one for two at the plate, Blomberg was one for three, Aiden Stapleton had a hit, Borchardt was one for two, Matyka was one for one with another double and Leonhard was one for one.

Iverson said the Redmen went on the trip expecting to play 14 innings, just not nine innings in one game and five in another, but it worked out perfectly with the team’s pitching plans. The Redmen hoped to get about 60 pitches from their top four guys and all four ended the day right around there. The hope was to get Wudi about 20 pitches but he got through his inning really quick with seven.

“It was a good experience for them to get outside,” Iverson said. “It’s going to help us tremendously considering we haven’t been able to get out on our field at all.”

Rib Lake’s scheduled game with Edgar Tuesday was postponed to Saturday at noon. The Redmen are scheduled to host Marathon Friday in a Marawood Conference crossover before opening Marawood North play next week by hosting Athens Tuesday and then going to Athens April 12.