WIAA DIV. 4 BASEBALL SECTIONAL - Rib Lake tops Edgar, but gets knocked out in sectional final

WIAA DIV. 4 BASEBALL SECTIONAL

The Rib Lake Redmen ended Edgar’s hopes of a return trip to state during Tuesday’s WIAA Division 4 Bruce baseball sectional, but they weren’t able to complete the second step which would’ve put them in this year’s state tournament.

Northwood-Solon Springs got through its sectional semifinal without using its top pitcher Abe Ahlberg, beating Washburn 3-0. After Rib Lake beat Edgar 6-2 in the day’s second semifinal, the Redmen weren’t able to get much going against Ahlberg, mustering just two hits while striking out 12 times in a 10-2 season- ending loss.

The Redmen, however, were in the game until the bottom of the sixth, trailing just 4-2, when things unraveled and the Green Eagles put up a six-spot.

Rib Lake finished a strong year at 18-6, while Northwood-Solon Springs improved to 18-1 and advanced to the first state baseball appearance in either school’s program history.

“Their pitcher was the best guy I’ve seen in a few years,” Rib Lake head coach Dick Iverson said of the Colorado Mesa University recruit. “He was very good. He threw hard, he had great control, he had a great curveball. He was a very, very good ball player.”

Amazingly for a Division 4 program, the Green Eagles also have another college- bound pitcher, Kaden Corlett, who is currently out of action with an ACL injury. He has committed to the University of St. Thomas, an NCAA Division I team.

Northwood-Solon Springs, playing as the home team, was first on the scoreboard with a three-run bottom of the third inning. It started with a bloop single by the Green Eagles’ number-eight hitter. The bases were loaded for number-three hitter Alex Slivensky and he got a hit with an error added on to score two. Another hit scored Slivensky.

Rib Lake cut into that lead in the top of the fifth. Brady Heiser singled and Seth walked. Tyler Matyka did his job, pushing a sacrifice bunt toward first base. The Green Eagles tried to throw across the diamond and get a force out at third, but the throw sailed down the leftfield line, allowing both runners to score.

A pickoff, however, helped keep Rib Lake at two runs for the inning.

Northwood-Solon Springs threatened in the bottom of the fifth, but Rib Lake senior Dominic Quednow impressively put out that fire. The Green Eagles did get a run on a triple and a single. But, relieving starter Talon Scheithauer with runners on second and third with no outs, Quednow got the first out on a comebacker and two strikeouts to keep the score at 4-2.

But then four straight walks started a disastrous bottom of the six. The Redmen only allowed one hit in the inning, but the six walks, compounded by two errors led to an eight-run deficit with just three outs to work with.

“All of a sudden, we just kind of lost it there,” Iverson said. “It was a good run by us. I thought we had switched the momentum there when it was 3-2. You never know. We just kept saying put the ball in play, but we couldn’t put it in play too often.”

Heiser and Seth Borchardt had Rib Lake’s lone hits. Scheithauer pitched fourplus innings. He struck out three and allowed six hits and four runs, three earned. He hit two batters. Quednow was charged with four runs on four walks with the two fifth-inning strikeouts. Andrew Wudi ended the sixth with two walks and three unearned runs allowed. He gave up the one hit of the inning.

While falling one win short of making it to the big dance in Appleton is never easy, the season was certainly a success for the Redmen with their regional championship and a co-championship in the Marawood North with pre-season favorite Abbotsford-Colby.

“It was a pretty successful year,” Iverson said. “We had some quality wins. We beat Marathon twice, Columbus Catholic, Edgar, Abbotsford-Colby, Phillips twice. Athens had a good team, we beat them three times. We beat some really good teams. De Soto was in the sectional and we beat them. I was pretty pleased with how we played this year.”

Rib Lake 6, Edgar 2

Jackson Blomberg finished his stellar senior season with another outstanding outing on the mound, the Redmen came up with a handful of clutch hits and had one of their top defensive efforts of the season in their 6-2 semifinal win over Edgar Tuesday afternoon.

Blomberg was one out away from a complete game when he reached his 100-pitch limit. He struck out three, walked four and gave up four hits and two earned runs. Edgar had some traffic on the base paths in the top of the seventh, scoring one run, but Scheithauer came in and retired the only batter he faced on a fly ball to end the threat.

Rib Lake had 10 hits off Edgar pitching, including two apiece from Scheithauer, Quednow and Borchardt.

“We hit the ball pretty well,” Iverson said. “We pitched well and played some really good defense. We threw two guys out on relay throws. We did a nice job, a really solid game. We had only one error. They went to state last year and they were pre-season number eight in the state. We played well.”

Rib Lake jumped ahead 1-0 in the bottom of the second inning. Quednow singled, advanced on an error on a ball hit by Heiser and scored on a base hit by Borchardt.

The big inning for the Redmen was the third. Wudi singled and stole second and scored on Blomberg’s base hit. Ethan Cook walked and Quednow followed with Rib Lake’s biggest hit of the game, a tworun triple down the leftfield line that made it 4-0.

Edgar got on the board with a leadoff homer in the fourth and had its best chance to tighten things up in that inning. With two on and no one out, the Redmen got a huge double play when Quednow caught a fly ball in centerfield and, with his throw and the relay throw from Scheithauer, the shortstop, they got Edgar’s runner trying to tag up and get to third.

“That was a big play,” Iverson said. “Dom hit the relay perfectly and Talon made a nice relay.”

Another of Rib Lake’s web gems during the game was turned in by Wudi at third base, Iverson said. Wudi was able to barehand a bad-hop grounder about shoulder high and threw out the hitter at first base by a step.

The Redmen went up 6-1 in the fifth with a two-out rally. Quednow walked, stole second and scored on Heiser’s double. Borchardt singled to drive in Heiser.

Wudi, Blomberg, Heiser and Matyka had one hit apiece for Rib Lake.

The Rib Lake Redmen claimed the WIAA Division 4 regional baseball championship Thursday with a 6-5 win over Marawood North rival Athens in the regional final. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS

Dominic Quednow celebrates with Seth Borchardt after Quednow scores on Brady Heiser’s fifth-inning double to give Rib Lake a 5-1 lead over Edgar during Tuesday’s WIAA Division 4 sectional semifinal game in Bruce. Borchardt followed with an RBI single to cap Rib Lake’s scoring in a 6-2 win. ROSS PATTERMANN/THORP COURIER