Big second inning carries Pioneers, who end Rib Lake’s season again

WIAA DIV. 5 SOFTBALL

Little mistakes helped fourth-seeded Butternut-Mercer build a 5-0 lead by the end of the second inning that was just a little too much for fifth-seeded Rib Lake to overcome Tuesday in a season-ending 6-4 loss.

With the WIAA Division 5 regional semifinal win, the Pioneers earned their fourth win over the Lady Redmen in two years with this one possibly being the toughest.

Just one of Butternut-Mercer’s runs was earned and, according to head coach Craig Scheithauer, the breaks just seemed to go the home team’s way at key times as the Redmen finished 4-11. The Pioneers improved to 8-8 and earned a date with top-seeded Drummond (13-3) today, Thursday in the regional final round.

Butternut-Mercer only outhit Rib Lake 8-7 and both teams only struck out three times.

“We hit about 18 ground balls and eight or nine of them went to their shortstop (Jersey Polenchek), who is probably their best player,” Scheithauer said. “We hit the ball hard on the ground, but she didn’t make any errors and made the plays. Our defense hurt us with a couple errors in the second inning which ended up being too much to recover from.”

The Pioneers turned three singles and a Rib Lake error into a 2-0 first-inning lead. They stretched it to 5-0 in the second after two straight errors with one out got the rally started. Scheithauer said Rib Lake had a great chance at a double play on the second miscue, but instead got no outs, leaving two on with one out. The Pioneers came up with a big hit, added a few more base runners and eventually pushed three runs across.

Rib Lake got on the board in the fourth with Leah Chmielowiec doubling to center and eventually scoring on Molly Heiser’s groundout. The Redmen wound up stranding two runners in the inning. A two-run fifth pulled the visitors within 5-3. A walk and bunt singles by Kiana Dallmann and Addison Gumz loaded the bases for Kyla Kennedy who got a clutch hit to knock in a pair. The Pioneers got one back on an error and a double.

In the sixth, singles by Danielle Mann and Josie Scheithauer led to a run-scoring groundout by Emily Rodman that drove in courtesy runner Lily Butler. Rib Lake hit three balls hard off Butternut-Mercer pitcher Cassy Bortz in the seventh, but they all went right to defenders in a one-two-three inning.

Rodman pitched the entire game for Rib Lake and pitched well enough to win. She walked just one batter and allowed eight hits while striking out three. Dallmann had two bunt hits in the game for Rib Lake. Chmielowiec, Kennedy, Mann, Scheithauer and Gumz had a hit apiece.

“The good news is we were a more competitive team this year,” Scheithauer said. “We just didn’t finish in some games and a lot of that was just because we are inexperienced in doing that. It will hurt to lose some key players like Kyla, Molly, Emily and Reagan Reinhardt. But we have a nice class coming that will compete for some spots. We should have a good summer where the kids can compete, see what varsity pitching is like and get some reps. I think they’re up for that challenge.”

Hatchets 7, Rib Lake 4

Rib Lake wrapped up its regular season Friday with a 7-4 non-conference loss at Tomahawk.

Again, some breaks went against Rib Lake, but for Scheithauer, the biggest issue was a lack of offense as the Redmen struck out 12 times against Hatchet pitchers Maddie Moreno and Kayleigh Haring. “The girls felt the first pitcher we saw (Moreno) was in the top-three as far as speed goes that we’ve seen all year,” Scheithauer said. “But we shouldn’t have let that bother us like it did. It seemed like the home-plate umpire had more of an inside strike zone and we didn’t adjust to it. We struck out eight or nine times against the first pitcher and we haven’t been like that all year.”

The first bad break of the day came right away when Gumz was hit by a pitch to open the game but was called out while attempting to steal second, a call Rib Lake didn’t agree with. But it short-circuited a potential rally.

Tomahawk got a run in the first and added one in the second. Kennedy and Heiser walked in the fourth to set up Mann’s RBI double. But the Hatchets stretched their lead to 7-1 in the bottom of the fourth with a hit by pitch, three singles, two of which came on bunts and, eventually, a three-run homer.

Down 7-2 to start the seventh, Rib Lake loaded the bases on a Jennifer Pichea walk, a single by Chmielowiec and Kennedy got hit by a pitch. The inning, however, turned when what was ini- tially called catcher’s interference on a ball fouled off by Heiser got overturned. Heiser then lined into a double play. Mann singled to re-load the bases, Reinhardt walked in a run and Rhonnie Jo Scheithauer was hit by a pitch to force in another, but a fielder’s choice ended the rally and game.

“We just had too many strikeouts,” coach Scheithauer said. “We had 12 strikeouts and we haven’t done that all year. It just didn’t look like us. We had some calls go against us, but we also got hurt by our own errors. We pitched OK. I thought we did a decent job. Of seven runs, four were earned. We just didn’t play well in any other phase.”