A/C sweeps Prentice, bounced in two road contests
By Nathaniel Underwood
The Abbotsford/Colby baseball team notched two conference wins over Prentice in a double-header last Tuesday night but fell in both their non-conference games that followed. The co-op is now 12-7 on the year and 7-1 in the Marawood- North.
Wausau East, 2-0
The Abby/Colby lineup was held hitless in a 2-0 shutout against Wausau East on Monday night as Lumberjack’s starting pitcher Ryan Rodemeier and reliever Caden Werth combined to confound the visiting co-op’s bats all afternoon.
A two-run first inning for the hosting Wausau East squad turned out to be the difference maker in what turned into a pitchers’ duel between Rodemeier and Abby/Colby starter Payton Schreiber. The two pitchers combined to throw 12 and a third innings and only surrendered one earned run between them.
Leading off for the Lumberjacks, Rodemeier was hit by a pitch in his first at-bat and would eventually come around to score on Werth’s single later in the inning. Werth then made it 2-0 on a fielder’s choice that would have ended the inning had an early error by the Abby/Colby defense not occurred.
After the early spurt from the home team, both lineups were limited in what they could accomplish at the plate. After tossing 18 pitches in the first inning, it only took Schreiber 46 to cover the final five innings, working quickly through East’s offense.
While Abby/Colby’s own offense made the Lumberjacks’ starting pitcher work a bit more, drawing seven walks over the course of the evening, they could not find any holes in their opponent’s defense. The clutch hit eluded the co-op all game, as runners were left in scoring position in the first, third, fifth and seventh innings.
In the seventh, Abby/Colby had bases loaded with two outs, but Werth was able to get a groundout to end the game.
Schreiber went all six innings on the mound for the co-op, striking out two and not surrendering a walk.
Marathon, 12-5
In a duel between the co-leaders of the Marawood-North and South, the hosting Marathon squad came out firing on all cylinders, scoring nine unanswered runs to open the game. Red Raiders starting pitcher Cody Radtke silenced the Abby/ Colby bats over the first three innings while clutch hitting by the home team and errors committed by the co-op eventually led to a 12-5 defeat for the visitors.
Failing to notch the elusive third out plagued the Abby/ Colby defense early on Friday. After True Thurs knocked in Marathon’s first run of the game with a double, the Red Raiders’ next eight runs all came with two outs. Five errors committed by the co-op’s defense over the first three innings kept the home team’s offense rolling.
By the time Carlos Lara drove in the first run for Abby/ Colby on a sacrifice fly in the top of the fourth, the visitors found themselves in a significant hole. Nano Lopez’s follow up double made it a two-run inning, but they still found themselves down 9-2 with just three innings to play.
The task of coming back against a solid Marathon squad was made even harder after the co-op’s lineup was held without a run in the top of the fifth and the Red Raiders scored yet another run with two outs and the co-op’s sixth error of the night in the bottom half of the frame.
Lara and Lopez came through for Abby/Colby once again in the sixth, the former pushing across Blake Bargender on an RBI double while the latter came up with a single that scored Evan Reis. A fielder’s choice gave the co-op a third run in the inning with the chance for more, but the bases were left loaded as Abby/Colby could not come up with the same two-out hitting as their opponents had earlier in the contest.
Two runs in the bottom of the sixth for Marathon largely
See A/C BASEBALL/ Page 16
FIRING A FASTBALL - JV Castillo unloads a strike during the co-op’s loss to Marathon.
STAFF PHOTO/NATHANIEL UNDERWOOD A/C baseball
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undid the co-op’s efforts.
Reis was saddled with the loss after starting the game on the mound for the visitors. He gave up six runs on four hits and three walks while striking out two. JV Castillo pitched three and a third innings in relief, similarly surrendering six runs on four hits while walking five and striking out three. Of the 12 runs given up, however, only five were charged to the pair of pitchers due to fielding mistakes. Lara closed out the game, going one inning and giving up one hit.
Lara finished the game going 2-for-2 with two RBIs and a run scored. Lopez also had two hits and two RBIs and Preston Bunkelman was 2-for-2 and drew a walk. Bargender and Payton Schreiber had one hit each.
Prentice, 13-2
While it was the visiting Buccaneers that took an early lead in the first game of a double-header between the two Marawood- North squads, a pair of big innings for Abby/Colby ended the affair early. The co-op put up five runs in the third and added seven more in the fourth as Payton Schreiber shut out Prentice over his final four innings of work to defeat their conference foes 13-2.
Prentice jumped out to a 2-0 advantage in the top of the first as a two-out RBI single from Adam Raab drove in both runs. A strikeout from Schreiber ended the inning before any more damage could be done, but Abby/Colby still found themselves in an early hole.
The home team halved that deficit in the bottom of the second. A double from Nano Lopez put him in scoring position with one out and AJ Brodhagen came up with a timely single to right field to plate his teammate.
Schreiber then helped his own cause in the third, driving in the tying and go-ahead runs on a triple. Evan Reis traded places with his pitcher on two at-bats later with his own RBI triple and then scored on a wild pitch and Brodhagen drove in Lopez on a single for the second inning in the row to put Abby/Colby up 6-2.
The Abby/Colby squad was able to capitalize on errors committed by the Buccaneers defense in the fourth, taking advantage of four fielding mistakes and a few passed balls to fuel a seven run effort in the inning. After an error and two walks loaded the bases, Blake Bargender was able to score on a wild pitch and Schreiber came home on another error on the same play. Reis then drove in a third run on a single and scored two at-bats later. A double from Koren Decker set up two Abby/Colby runners in scoring position and yet another mistake by the Prentice defense allowed both to score with two outs. JV Castillo added the final run of the inning by scoring on another pitch that escaped the catcher, making it 13-2. Of the seven runs that came across the plate for the coop in the bottom of the fourth, only five were earned.
After getting tagged for a pair of runs in the first, Schreiber scattered two hits and a walk while striking out one. The Abby/Colby defense played a clean game behind him, committing zero errors.
Reis, Schreiber, and Brodhagen all ended the game with two hits in three at bats and with two RBIs each. Schreiber and Reis also scored twice. Lopez went 1-for-2 with two runs scored and Bargender scored twice on a hit and a walk. Lopez, Reis and Castillo each had a stolen base in the win.
Prentice, 10-0
Abby/Colby followed their double-digit win over the Buccaneers with another solid performance, picking up their seventh conference win of the season by defeating Prentice 10-0.
Evan Reis and JV Castillo combined to pitch five shutout innings, giving up just one hit each. Reis struck out five of the seven batters he faced over the first two innings and Castillo came in and only allowed two baserunners in the remaining three innings of the game.
Schreiber got things started for the co-op in the top of the first, driving in Castillo with an RBI single. A double by Carlos Lara put both himself and Schreiber in scoring position and a groundout allowed another run to come home. Brodhagen knocked in two more on an RBI single with two outs, giving Abby/Colby a 4-0 lead.
With the pair of seniors holding the Buccaneers’ lineup from scoring, the first four runs scored by Abby/Colby in the first would have been more than enough to pick up the win, but the co-op didn’t stop there. After starting out the inning with a single, Preston Bunkelman was able to add a run on a bases-loaded passed ball and Arturo Lopez and Blake Bargender were also able to score on a fielder’s choice on the same at-bat.
Reis started the third inning with a triple and was able to score on another groundout and AJ Brodhagen came home on a pitch that got away from the catcher. Castillo’s RBI single capped off the co-op’s scoring for the evening, but it was just enough to end the game in five innings.
Bunkelman reached and scored in both his plate appearances, Brodhagen and Schreiber had two RBIs apiece and Castillo, Reis and Nano Lopez all went 1-for-2 with an RBI and a run scored. Abby/Colby once again stole three bases, with Brodhagen, Castillo and Nano Lopez all swiping one each.
GOING FOR EXTRA BASES - Carlos Lara awaits the pitch in Marathon, where he hit two doubles.
STAFF PHOTO/NATHANIEL UNDERWOOD
