WIAA DIV. 4 BASEBALL - Gilman goes down 11-0 at Edgar; improvement seen in baseball season

WIAA DIV. 4 BASEBALL

The Gilman Pirates mustered just three hits offensively and were knocked out by a five-run third inning by host Edgar, who won Thursday’s WIAA Division 4 baseball regional quarterfinal 11-0 in five innings.

The sixth-seeded Wildcats scored in all four of their at-bats and ended the 11th-seeded Pirates’ season at 4-13. Edgar (12-8) got two hits and three runs batted in from Lucas Stahnke, a two-run homer from Sawyer Weiland and 12 strikeouts from pitcher Jase Apfelbeck to advance to a regional semifinal matchup Tuesday at third-seeded Eau Claire Immanuel Lutheran, which it won 6-1 to earn a spot in a Wednesday regional final at secondseeded Flambeau (13-5).

GilmangottwosinglesfromBeauPockat and another from Dawson Grunseth in the loss. The Pirates’ best scoring threat came when they were down to their last out in the fifth. Dawson Robinson reached on a two-out error and Pockat followed with a single to right to get two runners on for the first time in the game. Apfelbeck then got his 12th strikeout to end it.

Edgar had nine hits, three of which came in the Wildcats’ two-run bottom of the first. Apfelbeck walked, stole second and scored on Stahnke’s one-out single. Stahnke advanced to second on the throw home and scored on Brett Baumgartner’s two-out bloop single.

The Pirates and Grunseth, the starting pitcher, were an out away from getting out of the second unscathed, when Leyton Schuett’s single scored Gavin Mauer, who had led off the inning with a walk, and Stahnke’s single drove in Schuett for a 4-0 lead.

The big third inning for Edgar started with a Marcus Huehnerfuss double and a Brock Mauer single. After a couple of errors made it 5-0 and kept two runners on base, Apfelbeck tripled in the runners, Stahnke hit a sacrifice fly and a run scored on Gilman’s third error of the inning.

Weiland’s two-run homer in the fourth put the 10-run rule into effect going into the fifth.

Grunseth pitched three innings for Gilman. The sophomore left-hander allowed eight hits and nine runs, six of which were earned. He struck out two and walked four. Pockat threw the fourth, allowing two runs and a hit while striking out one and hitting one.

The Pirates ended an improved season under first-year head coach Derek Nichols. Featuring a mix of experience and some new young talent, the Pirates went 3-7 in the Eastern Cloverbelt Conference, including a win over Spencer, who Gilman hadn’t beaten since 2019, and had a couple of non-conference games get away from them late in May.

Dalton Wisocky, Adam Draeger and Troy Duellman are the team’s graduating seniors.