ALL-MARAWOOD NORTH BASEBALL - Blomberg, Iverson share top honors; Redmen do well in vote

ALL-MARAWOOD NORTH BASEBALL

Pitchers in the Marawood North had a hard time getting Jackson Blomberg out and opponents had an even harder time scoring when he pitched, making him one of the conference’s Players of the Year for 2024.

Blomberg shared the Marawood North’s top award with Abbotsford-Colby’s Payton Schreiber after both players led their teams to a share of the conference title this spring. Rib Lake put three players on the All-Marawood North first teams, while Abbotsford-Colby had four selections on the squad after both teams went 9-1 in league play, splitting their matchups with each other.

Blomberg’s accolades went a step further as the senior earned honorable mention for the 2024 Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association’s All-North Central District team and he earned Academic All-District honors.

In all, seven Rib Lake Redmen earned All-Marawood North honors for their play and head coach Dick Iverson added another Coach of the Year award to his long list. He shared this year’s honors with Abbotsford-Colby’s co-head coaches Ryan Bargender and Brett Nelson.

The Redmen finished 18-6 overall this spring and reached the WIAA Division 4 sectional final, where its run to state fell one win short with a 10-2 loss to eventual state runner-up Northwood-Solon Springs.

Blomberg, senior Dominic Quednow and sophomore Talon Scheithauer were among the 10 unanimous picks by the Marawood North coaches that filled this year’s first team.

Voted the team’s Most Valuable Player, Blomberg started six of Rib Lake’s conference games and was the winning pitcher in all of them, posting a minuscule 0.71 earned run average in 39.1 innings. He allowed just six runs, four of them earned, in league play. He gave up just 18 hits and 16 walks, one intentional, and struck out 40 Marawood North batters.

In Rib Lake’s biggest conference win, Blomberg threw 6.2 innings, allowing three hits and four runs, two earned, in a 6-4 victory over Abbotsford-Colby on April 23. He worked around five walks and got five strikeouts in that win.

Due to a rainout, Blomberg pitched both games against Phillips and shut the Loggers out both times. In a 4-0 win at Phillips on April 30, he allowed three hits and two walks while striking out seven. On May 6 at home, he allowed just two hits and struck out seven with the only walk being intentional.

Blomberg struck out 12 Prentice Buccaneers in a 7-1 win on April 15 and threw a five-inning no-hitter in a 10-0 win over Chequamegon, striking out five. He threw all seven innings of a 5-1 win over Athens on April 9, working around six hits and five walks while striking out four.

Overall, Blomberg went 8-0 with a save and a 1.01 ERA in 62.2 innings pitched, allowing nine earned runs and 31 hits. He won the team’s Lowest ERA Award. He struck out 62 and walked 29. His final pitching outing came in Rib Lake’s 6-2 WIAA Division 4 sectional semifinal win over defending sectional champion Edgar when he pitched 6.2 innings, allowing just four hits and two earned runs while striking out three and walking four.

At the plate as Rib Lake’s number-three hitter in the batting order, Blomberg hit .375 in league play with two doubles and eight runs batted in. He scored 12 runs and stole nine bases. Five walks and being hit by pitches twice got him to a .475 on-base percentage in league play. He won the team’s Leading Hitter award with a .351 overall batting average with 18 RBIs, 14 stolen bases, three doubles and one triple.

When he wasn’t pitching, Blomberg primarily played shortstop or was in the outfield.

Blomberg, who plans to play baseball at UW-Stevens Point, earned an All-Marawood award for the fourth time. This is his second straight first-team award, he made the second team as a sophomore and got honorable mention as a freshman in 2021. He was eligible for the District All-Academic award by carrying at least a 3.8 grade point average while being a firstteam all-conference pick.

Quednow takes a big jump to the first team this year after getting honorable mention last year. Quednow had another outstanding year defensively in centerfield and hit .462 in North play (12 for 26) with three triples and 11 RBIs. He drew seven walks and was hit by three pitches, bumping his on-base percentage to .611 out of the five-spot in the batting order. He scored 11 runs and stole eight bases.

Overall, Quednow hit .344 and won the Most RBIs team award with 24 runs batted in. He hit four triples, stole 14 bases, scored 20 runs and drew 14 walks. He went four for five with three RBIs, a triple and three runs scored in a 16-1 rout of Chequamegon on May 9. He tripled and drove in two runs in an 11-3 loss at Abbotsford-Colby on April 25 and had two hits in a 10-0 win at Prentice April 16. He had two hits, including a key two-run triple in the sectional win over Edgar.

Quednow also pitched 23.1 innings this season, posting a 1-3 record. His best outing came in a 6-1 victory at Columbus Catholic April 22 that handed the Dons their first loss of the year. He went 3.2 innings, allowing just one hit and one run with three strikeouts.

Scheithauer filled a big role as Rib Lake’s leadoff hitter, shortstop and second starting pitcher. He moved up a level after earning a second-team spot on the 2023 All-North team and was voted the winner of the team’s Hustle Award.

He hit .333 with two doubles and six RBIs. He scored 10 runs and stole seven bases. Overall, he hit .278.

On the mound, he was 3-1 in league play with a save and a 1.67 earned run average in 21 innings pitched. Only five of the 12 runs against him were earned.

His top pitching outing was a completegame 5-1 win at Athens on April 12 where he allowed just two hits and one unearned run while striking out five and walking one. He threw a six-inning one-hit shutout at Prentice April 16 with four strikeouts and three walks. Overall, he was 7-2 with one save and a 3.67 ERA.

Scheithauer had four multi-hit games during the season, going two for four at Prentice, two for three with a walk and two runs scored in the win over Abbotsford-Colby and two for four in Rib Lake’s comefrom- behind 8-7 non-conference win at Marathon on May 13. He was two for four with a double in the sectional win over Edgar.

Those three joined Abbotsford-Colby’s Schreiber, JV Castillo, Blake Bargender and Evan Reis on the All-North first team as well as freshman Daxton Diethelm of All-Marawood

Athens, senior Drew Hauschild of Phillips and sophomore Heston Hueckman of Prentice. Bargender, Castillo, Reis and Hauschild are repeat first-teamers from a year ago.

Senior Andrew Wudi and sophomore Ethan Cook are Rib Lake’s second-team representatives. Wudi received honorable mention the past two years and Cook returns to the second team for the second straight spring.

Wudi played at third base and earned the team’s Best Defense Award. He drew high praise from Iverson, who called Wudi, “I think the best third baseman I’ve had in 41 years.”

Hitting second in the batting order, Wudi posted a .235 league batting average (eight for 34). He scored seven runs while driving in five, drew four walks and stole four bases. His on-base percentage in league play was .341. He also got some valuable outs in a relief pitching role, allowing one earned run in 3.2 league innings.

Wudi, who hit .325 overall, had backto- back two-hit games in league play April 12 at Athens and April 15 against Prentice. He was two for three in the 10-0 win over Chequamegon. Wudi was three for four in Rib Lake’s 5-3 win at Marathon April 5 and two for four with two runs in the 8-7 win there.

Cook provided steady play in his first season as Rib Lake’s full-time catcher and hit a solid .353 in league play (12 for 34) out of the four-spot in the order. He drove in 10 runs and scored 10 and had an on-base percentage of .421. Cook made one of the key plays of the post-season for Rib Lake, throwing out a would-be base stealer to end a sixth-inning threat in the 6-5 regional final win over Athens.

Cook had five multi-hit games, all of which came in conference games. He had two hits and scored twice in each Prentice win, including three RBIs in the 7-1 home win. He was two for four with an RBI in the win over Abbotsford-Colby, went two for three at Phillips and was two for four with three runs scored and two driven in during the 16-1 rout of Chequamegon.

Junior Brady Heiser and sophomore Seth Borchardt made the honorable mention list for Rib Lake.

Heiser, the team’s first baseman and number-six batter, hit .310 in league play (nine for 29) with two doubles and eight RBIs and came up with some big hits throughout the season while compiling a .294 overall average. Three of his six multi-hit games came in league play, including a three-hit game in the 16-1 win over Chequamegon where he drove in two runs. He had two hits in the win over Abbotsford-Colby and in the 10-0 win over Prentice.

One of his big moments of the year was a home run in Rib Lake’s season-opening 9-8, nine-inning win over De Soto.

Borchardt was Rib Lake’s primary rightfielder and its number-seven hitter. He had a .192 batting average in league play but boosted that to a .382 on-base percentage with six walks and two hit by pitches. Overall, Borchardt hit .283, scored nine runs, drove in 12, drew 17 walks and stole four bases. He also went 1-1 on the mound with a 5.68 ERA in 12.1 innings pitched.

Borchardt had two hits in both ends of the doubleheader sweep over Chequamegon and was three for three and credited with the win in the big nonconference victory at Columbus Catholic, with 3.1 two-hit relief innings. He had two hits in the comeback win at Marathon.

Heiser and Borchardt had Rib Lake’s lone hits against Northwood-Solon Springs’ Abraham Ahlberg in the sectional final.

Blomberg and Wudi received the team’s Captain Awards for 2024, while Heiser and Scheithauer were voted the team’s captains for 2025. The team’s Most Improved Player Award went to senior leftfielder Donovan Sutherland, who returned to the sport for the first time in several years. He gave Rib Lake much-needed defensive help in leftfield and his speed was an asset when he made contact or bunted from his number-nine spot in the order.

“He saved us a lot of runs with his defense,” Iverson said.

Iverson, who completed his 41st season as Rib Lake’s head coach, won his 13th Coach of the Year award in the Marawood Conference.

“I would consider this a very successful year,” Iverson said. “We had kind of a tough year with the weather even though it started out with an early spring, we had a lot of rain. We lost a few non-conference games I wish we could’ve played but we didn’t have the open dates to reschedule them. Thank you to my coaching staff, my wife Teri, Jack Buksa for doing the field, all of our bus drivers and all of my (eighth grade) managers this year, who were awesome. They’ll be relied upon next year to help us. I’m hoping we can get a lot of games in this summer.”

Rib Lake’s Legion team is off to a 7-1 start, sweeping Merrill’s Junior Legion, Park Falls and Tomahawk while splitting with Medford’s Junior Legion.

Dominic Quednow First Team

Talon Scheithauer First Team

Dick Iverson Coach of Year

Andrew Wudi Second Team

Ethan Cook Second Team

Brady Heiser Hon. Mention

Seth Borchardt Hon. Mention

Donovan Sutherland Most Improved