RIB LAKE SOFTBALL PREVIEW - Rib Lake girls aim for another breakthrough in softball

RIB LAKE SOFTBALL PREVIEW

The list of names on Rib Lake’s 2025 softball roster isn’t long, but many of those names will be quite familiar to the team’s followers.

Twelve of the 13 Redmen return from last year’s team and even the 13th is the third in a line of sisters on the squad. It’s a group that knows each other well, the topline players have played a lot of varsity softball and have won their fair share of games the past two years.

Under head coach Craig Scheithauer, now in the fourth season of his second stint in that position, there is little reason not to be optimistic about what the Redmen are capable of accomplishing.

“It’s nice to have kids who know what we expect,” Scheithauer said Tuesday. “They know what they’re supposed to be doing, what the defensive rotations are. They know how the game is played. It’s nice to have kids that have been in the system a few years and they help train the younger ones when we mix them in too.”

Rib Lake is set to open the new season this weekend at the Danny Mac Classic inside Rhinelander’s Hodag Dome. The Redmen are scheduled to face Pembine-Goodman Saturday at 5:15 p.m. in their first-round game. They’ll see Shiocton or Flambeau in round two, either at 7 p.m. or 8:45 p.m. depending on whether they lose or win the first game. Consolation games are set for 9 a.m. Sunday and the championship and thirdplace games of the bracket will be played at 11 a.m.

Rib Lake’s 2024 records of 5-3 in the Marawood North and 12-11-1 overall didn’t quite match the 6-2, 15-5 marks of 2023, but the Redmen also played a schedule that was considerably upgraded from the previous year. Both seasons ended in the same spot, a WIAA Division 5 regional final loss at Athens. The Redmen gave the Marawood North champion Blue Jays three good games last year but lost all three by scores of 8-6, 1110 in eight innings and 7-4 in the regional final. While experience is one obvious strength, versatility remains another as all of Rib Lake’s top players are capable of handling multiple positions. The team did lose two key seniors in unanimous first-team All Marawood North pitcher/ infielder Josie Scheithauer and second-team selection Leah Chmielowiec, who had been the team’s fouryear mainstay in centerfield. Among those returning are juniors Tessa Weik and Avery Niemi, two more unanimous All-North picks by the conference’s coaches, second-team All North picks Tahlia Scheithauer and Kiana Dallmann and honorable mentionees, seniors Addison Gumz and Lily Butler. Starting in the pitching circle, Rib Lake figures to lean on a combination of Weik, Dallmann and Scheithauer to eat up most of this year’s innings. Dallmann, a senior, emerged as reliable hurler last year, going 3-1 in 26.2 innings pitched. Scheithauer, a junior, unfortunately ran into some shoulder issues and was shut down from pitching in mid-season after going 3-0 with a 2.04 earned run average in 24 innings pitched. Weik covered 23.1 innings in nine appearances.

“Our pitchers aren’t going to blow people away and get high strikeout totals,” Craig Scheithauer said. “They throw strikes and we’ll have to play good defense behind them like we always have. I’m confident they’ll be competitive against the teams in our conference. We still have to be able to hit the ball and score some runs. We still have speed on the bases.

“A lot of it will depend on who’s cooking, who’s doing well at the time,” Scheithauer said about divvying up the innings. “They all bring different styles of throwing.”

Niemi brings experience and toughness at the catcher position and also hit .476 last year with 27 runs batted in. Weik returns to first base. She led Rib Lake with 36 RBIs and seven homers last spring. Scheithauer returns to the middle infield when she’s not pitching. Gumz or Dallmann are options at second base, depending on who’s pitching. Butler gave Rib Lake solid work at third base and leftfield last year. Gumz could play third too if needed.

“Addy is our back-up catcher, she could pitch in situations where we don’t need the other three,” Craig Scheithauer said. “She so versatile I could put her anywhere. I think she’s played three of the four infield positions and I know she could play the outfield.”

Junior Madi Blomberg should see time at first base and leftfield. She hit .265 with four extra-base hits last year. Junior Kara Kennedy is likely to start out in rightfield again but can play several other positions as well. She had a tough time finding holes last year, but is certainly a capable hitter as evidenced by her 23 RBIs as a freshman.

Rib Lake is hoping sophomore Madelyn Dallmann, who saw a lot of time as a base runner last year, can take over in centerfield. She is coming off a knee injury that cost her her basketball season. She is cleared to play, though Rib Lake will monitor her workload, especially early.

Junior Payton Lueth and sophomores Annalee Roder and Abby Packenham return, while Ava Dallmann is the lone freshman. While cracking the varsity lineup will be tough for them now, coach Scheithauer noted that with three seniors leaving this year and five more leaving next year, it’s important that they stay motivated and take advantage of whatever varsity reserve, JV or even varsity innings they get. Because, if they stick with it, they will play as seniors.

“We keep telling them their time is coming,” Scheithauer said. “Your job now is to keep pushing, keep making your teammates better and making yourself better. We’ll get them as many innings as we can. Looking back at last year, playing some extra innings after varsity games or scheduling some extra games, we played the equivalent of 10 JV games with those girls.”

Winning the Marawood North certainly is a realistic goal. No Rib Lake softball team has won a Marawood championship trophy since 1996. Athens is the two-time defending champion. Phillips won the North in 2022 and those two teams shared the 2021 title.

Momentum and some additional confidence also could be on Rib Lake’s side after most of the girls were part of the basketball team that just won the WIAA Division 5 regional championship, the first for Rib Lake in 27 years.

“I like our chances in the North,” Scheithauer said. “But I’ve told the girls nobody is going to give it to us. Phillips competes for it every year. Athens lost their big class of girls, but the younger group they have isn’t bad. They’ll look a lot different, but their pitching is still decent. They’ll be competitive. We can’t take Chequamegon lightly. They could’ve beat us in one game last year. They’re a scrappy, well-coached team.”

Prentice, unfortunately, is currently showing a canceled season on its athletic calendar.

In non-conference play, crossover games against the Marawood South will again provide good competition. Rib Lake has just added games next weekend at the University of Northwestern in St. Paul against Minnesota teams Concordia Academy and Minnehaha Academy. The Redmen will face Loyal-Greenwood, Spencer, Gilman and Columbus Catholic out of the Eastern Cloverbelt.

The WIAA Division 5 sectional halfbracket will be competitive with teams like Gilman, Athens, Thorp and Eau Claire Immanuel Lutheran all fielding good teams in recent years.