Co-op makes push for conference title
Abby/Colby stays in hunt for the North
The Abbotsford/Colby baseball coop picked up a pair of home wins after topping the Chequamegon Screaming Eagles at home on Thursday.
The wins keep the co-op’s title hopes for the Marawood - North alive, but a loss on Monday at Red Arrow Park to the Stratford Tigers proves the co-op is still a work in progress.
13-3 9-2
After struggling to put runs on the board in their last four games, the Abby/ Colby co-op filled Red Arrow Park with the sweet song of a bat cracking a ball on Thursday afternoon.
The co-op welcomed Marawood - North rival Chequamegon to Abbotsford, though the Screaming Eagles found little to cheer about as Abby/Colby scored first and scored often.
The co-op raced out to an early 11-0 lead through the first three innings, scoring one run in the bottom of the first, four in the bottom of the second and an offensive flurry in the third with six runs.
Abby/Colby got out of their hitting funk in emphatic fashion, bruising the bats to the tune of 11 hits in their first game of their double-header with the Screaming Eagles.
Hunter Soyk and Nick Olvera led the charge, with each player tallying three hits. Soyk also had a double.
Soyk did double-duty in the first game, pitching through 5 2/3 innings. Soyk was highly effective on the mound, fanning eight batters and giving up just three hits and one earned run as he picked up the win. JV Castillo came in for the save, pitching the final 1/3 of the game, striking out one Screaming Eagle.
Chequamegon finally got on board late, scoring three runs at the top of the fifth, but Abby/Colby’s early start was too much to overcome. Two more Abby/ Colby runs followed, and the co-op picked up its tenth win of the season.
Soyk finished with a team high three RBIs to cap his big night. Ross Elmhorst had two RBIs and one hit. JV Castillo had two hits and Cade Faber led the coop with two stolen bases.
Abby/Colby’s eleventh win of 2021 came soon after as the co-op won the second game of their Thursday doubleheader with Chequamegon.
As in their first game, the co-op used a quick start to put pressure on the Screaming Eagles’ defense. Abby/Colby held Chequamegon scoreless in the first inning, and then drew first blood with one run at the bottom of the first.
Neither team could score in the second, but Abby/Colby found a groove in the bottom of the third, collecting three more runs to move to a 4-0 lead.
The Screaming Eagles picked up two runs at the top of the fourth to make it a 4-2 ball game, but the co-op’s defense, and Mateo Lopez’s pitching, snuffed out the comeback.
Lopez picked up his first win at the mound this year, going the distance through 6 2/3 innings. Lopez gave up just two hits and no earned runs as he sent five batters back to the dugout. Nick Olvera pitched the final 1/3 of the game and struck out one batter.
The co-op’s offense remained consistent through the final innings. Abby/ Colby added one run at the bottom of the fourth, and then two apiece at the bottom of the fifth and sixth while holding Chequamegon scoreless for the rest of the game.
Abby/Colby saw eight different batters notch a hit, with Cade Faber enjoying the best game of his senior year. Faber, who ran track in 2019, has been a quick study under head coach Ryan Bargender, and he finished with a team high two hits, both doubles.
Blake Bargender had a pair of doubles. Mason Carpenter picked up a double. Bargender, Lopez, Elmhorst and Faber all had two RBIs.
Stratford, 4-1
The co-op faced a bigger challenge on Monday, May 24. The Stratford Tigers, 2019’s state champions in D-4, came to Red Arrow Park, and in a sodden, raindelayed game, the Tigers were able to muzzle the co-op’s offense.
Abby/Colby was only able to generate one run, which came courtesty of Ross Elmhorst in the bottom of the first. But it was Stratford who struck first, scoring two runs to open the game. From there, defense and pitching dominated. The co-op gave up just two more runs to the Tigers, one in the second and one in the top of the seventh.
The co-op was held to just four hits, with Elmhorst, Hunter Soyk, Nick Olvera and Brandon Diedrich all recording a single. Elmhorst took the loss at the mound, striking out two batters in five innings while giving up three hits and two runs.
EAGLE EYES -Abby/Colby’s Hunter Soyk nonchalantly plucks a flyball out of a dark and stormy sky on Monday.STAFF PHOTO/ROSS PATTERMANN
