WIAA DIV. 5 SOFTBALL - Athens again has the answers in regional final win over Rib Lake

WIAA DIV. 5 SOFTBALL

To get where they wanted to go this softball season, whether it was the top of the Marawood North or in the WIAA postseason, the Rib Lake Redmen knew they’d have to get through Athens.

The Blue Jays didn’t allow it to happen. In their third and final meeting of the season in Thursday’s WIAA Division 5 regional final, Rib Lake threw the first punch with a two-out, two-run rally in the top of the first, but Athens quickly countered with four runs in the bottom half and never trailed from there, winning 7-4 for its second straight regional title.

The Redmen, who also lost 8-6 and 11-10 in the regular-season matchups between the teams, finished 12-11-1. Oneseed Athens (16-7) advanced to a Tuesday sectional semifinal with second-seeded Thorp, which it lost 11-7.

While there were a couple of defensive plays Rib Lake probably wanted back, especially early, the Redmen didn’t give the Blue Jays the gifts they’d been prone to do in recent matchups. Athens won this one by stringing two offensive rallies together and by getting a strong pitching outing from Danica Diethelm with the Jays committing just one error behind her.

“We didn’t play a bad game, and I don’t know that Athens played a great game either,” Rib Lake head coach Craig Scheithauer said. “They made a couple of really good plays when they needed them. We made a couple of mental mistakes and one physical mistake when we were in a hurry that hurt us.”

Rib Lake finished with just six hits, two by Josie Scheithauer. Diethelm struck out five, walked only one and also hit a batter.

A combination of Rib Lake pitchers held Athens’ potent offense in check for the most part. Kiana Dallmann struck out one and allowed two hits in two scoreless relief innings. Tessa Weik got the start after a long outing for Josie Scheithauer the night before and struck out two while walking one. She allowed eight hits and seven runs, six of which were earned.

Weik also had the game’s first hit, banging a double to deep centerfield to drive in courtesy runner Madelyn Dallmann. She was running for Avery Niemi, who had singled with two outs in the top of the first. Scheithauer then dumped a single into shallow center, scoring Weik for a 2-0 lead.

Jazelle Hartwig started the four-run rally for Athens in the bottom of the first with a single and Sophia Coker added an infield hit to deep short. Addison Lavicka hit one to the gap in left-center that drove in both runners after it got through on an error.

Weik got Diethelm to pop out, but Sydney Coker got a bad-hop single to go around Scheithauer at first to knock in Lavicka with the go-ahead run. With the bases loaded and two outs, Rib Lake misplayed what should have been an inningending tapper, and that brought in the fourth run of the inning.

Rib Lake cut Athens’ lead to 4-3 in the fourth. Scheithauer singled with one out, stole second and scored when Leah Chmielowiec’s grounder went right under the glove of second baseman Sophia Coker. Rib Lake left two runners on base in that inning.

The Blue Jays immediately responded once again.

Jenna Handschke started the bottom of the fourth by drilling a rocket off the fence in the leftfield corner for a double. She had to hold and only advanced to third while making sure Autumn Diethelm’s double wasn’t caught. But that didn’t matter because Hartwig laced a one-out triple to score both runners. Sophia Coker’s single scored Hartwig for a 7-3 lead.

Hartwig was three for four atop the Athens lineup, while Sophia and Sydney Coker had two hits each.

“That was kind of how the game went,” Craig Scheithauer said. “Anytime we’d score, they’d score.”

Rib Lake got its final run in the fifth. Addison Gumz singled and went to second on a wild pitch and Tahlia Scheithauer reached on an infield hit to put the runners at the corners. Gumz was called out on the plate on the front end of a double steal with Rib Lake losing its argument claiming catcher Autumn Diethelm didn’t get the tag on Gumz. Scheithauer eventually scored on Niemi’s groundout.

Madilyn Blomberg was the only Rib Lake hitter to reach in the last two innings. She was hit by a pitch with one out in the seventh. The game ended with Hartwig, Athens’ shortstop making a lunging grab of a liner hit by Tahlia Scheithauer and having it stick in the end of her glove.

“I think if we would’ve held on in either of the first two games, especially the extra-inning game (the 11-10 loss), where we had a three-run lead, that might’ve changed how things went in conference and it may have changed our mentality a bit going into regional having proven we can beat them,” coach Scheithauer said. “We just proved that we maybe should have. We can think that, but the reality is they beat us three times and were the better team.

“But it was a good year,” he added. “We had three fewer wins than last year, but it was against a much tougher schedule. I’m proud of how we did. We still had a winning record.”

Chmielowiec and Josie Scheithauer will be lost to graduation, but a large core of the roster remains, looking to get better over the summer and be ready to keep the upward climb going next year.

Redmen 17, Panthers 10

In their rescheduled WIAA Division 5 regional semifinal on May 22, the fifthseeded Redmen got plenty of offense late and needed it to hold off pesky fourthseeded Prairie Farm 17-10.

Scheithauer and Chmielowiec lost out on their senior trip due to the rainout the day before and the hope, with an early 3:30 game time, was to get them back for their Senior Awards night in Rib Lake. That didn’t happen either, but at least they could say they and their teammates got a WIAA tournament win.

The Redmen banged out 16 hits and broke away from a 3-3 tie with 14 runs in the last innings. Weik drove in six runs and had the game’s biggest hit, a three-run double in Rib Lake’s four-run fifth. Gumz had three hits and scored four times. All of her hits were bunt singles. Niemi had three hits and drove in four runs. Blomberg had three hits and scored twice from the number-nine spot in the order. Josie Scheithauer also had a two-hit game and was the winning pitcher, going 5.1 innings.

Weik’s RBI double got Rib Lake on the board in the first inning. Niemi had a runscoring single and Weik drove in a run with a fielder’s choice to make it 3-0 in the top of the fourth. Two errors led to three unearned runs for Prairie Farm in the bottom half to tie it.

That’s about when the defensive and pitching minded game turned offensive.

Kiana Dallmann’s bunt single, Blomberg’s base hit and a bunt single for Gumz loaded the bases in the top of the fifth. Tahlia Scheithauer singled in Dallmann and Weik hit her big three-run double over the centerfielder’s head.

Rib Lake threatened to end the game early with a six-run sixth that made it 13-3. It all started with one runner on and two outs. A walk and fielder’s choice where Prairie Farm didn’t get the out loaded the bases for Niemi, who singled in two runs. Josie Scheithauer and Chmielowiec both later added two-run singles.

But with a chance to close it out via the 10-run rule, Prairie Farm instead got two runs on four walks and a fielder’s choice to get the game to the seventh. Rib Lake got four more in the top half to go up 175, highlighted by Gumz’s RBI bunt single and a double by Niemi. The Panthers then scored five times before the Redmen finally got the last out in the bottom half.

Scheithauer allowed four hits in her start. She struck out six and walked four. Dallmann got the last five outs, though Prairie Farm (11-4) didn’t make it easy.

“I thought the win said a little bit about the league we play in,” Scheithauer said. “We felt like we had played a tougher schedule during the season.”

Rib Lake first baseman Josie Scheithauer is pulled off the bag by a throw from shortstop Tahlia Scheithauer but still has plenty of time to tag Athens’ Addison Lavicka for the third out of the second inning in Thursday’s WIAA Division 5 regional final. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS