WBA REGIONALS: RIB LAKE ADVANCES - Rib Lake shuts down Blues, routs Bloomer to advance

Austin Ewan homered and drove in three runs, while pitcher Bryant Konieczny gave Rib Lake its second complete game of the weekend as the Osprey clinched their second straight berth in the Wisconsin Baseball Association’s B Division state finals with a 5-3 win over Plum City at Tannery Creek Park.

Konieczny made big pitches several times to limit the Blues to just one scoring inning. In that inning, the top of the fifth, Plum City didn’t hit a ball out of the infield while somehow managing to score three times to take a 3-2 lead.

Rib Lake countered with two in the bottom half to regain the lead, Ewan knocked in Jeff Ziembo with an RBI single in the sixth and the Osprey held from there.

Rib Lake, now 8-1 in Dairyland League and WBA tournament games, drew the seventh seed in this weekend’s finals in Augusta and will play second-seeded Whitehall in its first game at 9 p.m. on Friday.

Ewan’s homer was pulled down the rightfield line and bounced off the fair pole in the bottom of the third inning. With Jeff Ziembo hit by a Landan Lampman pitch two batters prior, the homer gave Rib Lake a 2-0 lead.

After a downpour halted things for about 25 minutes in the fourth inning, the Blues, who beat Bloomer 12-0 earlier in the day and were the second seed in the three-team pod, took their brief lead in the fifth. Lampman drew a leadoff walk. Konieczny’s throw to second on Noah Gansluckner’s sacrifice bunt was slightly high, pulling Levi Ewan off the bag for an error. Aaron Borgerding then bunted for a hit to load the bases with no outs.

Mitch Thomas and Connor Ducklow beat back-to-back dribblers into the soft ground that died in no-man’s land for infield hits that tied the game. Cody Brunkow pulled a grounder to the left side where Rib Lake was able to get a forceout at third base, but Borgerding scored the go-ahead run.

Konieczny, though, stopped the rally there, striking out Mike Bauer and getting Jake Bechel to pop out to second baseman Joe Frombach.

Levi Ewan led off the bottom half of the fifth with a hit, Steve Mann added and Konieczny added hits with one out to load the bases for Scott Hueckman who walked for an easy run batted in. An error on Grant Beard’s grounder broke the tie.

Konienczy worked out of jams that left two Plum City runners stranded in the second, fourth, fifth and eighth innings. The Blues left the bases loaded in the sixth and stranded 13 base runners in the game. Konieczny struck out eight hitters, walked five and allowed eight hits, including four to Borgerding.

Rib Lake had nine hits against Lampman, who went 4.2 innings before leaving due to injury, and Tony Garner, who covered the last 3.1 innings for the Blues. Garner struck out five, walked one and allowed three hits. Lampman was charged with four earned runs while striking out two, walking two and hitting two.

Ziembo, Austin Ewan and Konieczny had two hits apiece for the Osprey.

Rib Lake reached the semifinals in last year’s WBA B Division tournament, beating Bay City 6-3 and then losing in the semifinals 6-3 to eventual champion Osceola.

The winner of Friday’s first-round matchup advances to a 4 p.m. semifinal Saturday against either third-seeded Ellsworth or sixth-seeded Abbotsford. Abbotsford went 6-8 and tied for fourth in the Dairyland League’s Large Division, while Ellsworth was 7-7 and tied Osceola for fifth place in the 11-team St. Croix Valley League. Ellsworth won its pod at Augusta Sunday by beating Medford 16-1.

As for the Whitehall Whitetails, they went 10-10 in the South Division of the Chippewa River Baseball League this summer, good for fourth place. They also advanced out of the Augusta regional, sweeping Tony in what turned into a bestof- three series after Tomahawk did not make the trip.

If local teams Rib Lake and Interwald were to meet, it would not happen until Sunday’s noon championship game. The Woodticks drew the fifth seed and open play against defending champion and fourth-seeded Osceola at 10 a.m. on Saturday.

Rib Lake 21, Bloomer 6

The third-seeded Bloomer Woodticks drew first blood in Friday’s regional opener by grabbing a 5-0 lead in the first inning and a half, but their pitching and defense was pummeled by Rib Lake after that in a 21-6, seven-inning final.

A 12-run third inning fueled Rib Lake’s 21-1 run over the last five innings. Rib Lake had just 13 hits, but nine walks, two hit batters and six Bloomer errors allowed the runs to pile up quickly. After a shaky start, left-hander Austin Edwards settled down and went the distance for the Osprey, allowing eight hits and five walks while striking out seven. All six of Bloomer’s runs were earned.

Jackson Simmons did most of the damage for Bloomer, going three for four with an RBI single in the Woodticks’ tworun first and a three-run homer in the second.

Rib Lake started to turn the tide with Frombach’s two-out RBI single in the bottom of the second. Then came the big third inning that completely swung the game in the Osprey’s favor.

Levi Ewan was hit by a Jesse Urbanek pitch and scored all the way from first on an Edwards double. Mann was hit by a pitch. Urbanek’s throwing error on Konieczny’s bunt allowed Edwards to score. Another Urbanek error on Ziembo’s tapper loaded the bases for Beard, who walked in a run. Frombach’s one-out single tied it and Austin Ewan’s single put Rib Lake in front 6-5 and forced a pitching change.

Curtis Neskar was unable to slow down Rib Lake’s onslaught. He walked Levi Ewan to force in a run. Edwards got an infield hit to drive in one. Mann singled in one and, one out later, Ziembo yanked one over the head of shallow-playing rightfielder Joe Wallgren for a three-run triple. Beard’s single scored Ziembo for a 13-5 lead.

Mann singled in a run in the fourth, Frombach drove in his third run with a groundout in the fifth to make it 15-5.

Bloomer got a two-out RBI single from Joey Garrison in the sixth, but Rib Lake put it away with another big rally of six runs in the bottom half that included three straight Bloomer errors and a two-run triple by Austin Ewan.

Ziembo was three for four and Edwards was three for five. Austin Ewan, Mann and Frombach finished with two hits apiece.