No-hitter

DAIRYLAND LEAGUE BASEBALL

Konieczny one batter shy of 7-inning perfection in blowout

Backed by plenty of offensive support, Rib Lake Osprey right-hander Bryant Konieczny threw a seven-inning no-hitter in the team’s 22-0 Dairyland League win over the Spirit Twins Friday night.

A second-inning error was the only thing that separated Konieczny from a perfect game as he and the Osprey retired 21 of the 22 batters Spirit sent to the plate.

Konieczny, a 2020 Medford graduate, struck out nine, including clean-up hitter Matt Jensen for the final out.

“It’s definitely something I’m happy for and I’m proud of,” Konieczny said after the game. He said it was his first no-hitter at any level. “Right away the fastball was good and the curveball was on. The change up was on. As the game went on, the curveball got slower and the fastball seemed faster. We just kind of worked off those pitches.”

Rib Lake catcher Steve Mann had the best view of Konieczny’s pitching gem.

“He had the control,” Mann said. “He had the curveball going and we slowed that down and that kept them off-balance. He had the fastball and he didn’t walk guys.”

Rib Lake improved to 3-1 in Division A of the league standings and completed a season sweep of the Twins, who fell hard to 0-6 thanks to Rib Lake’s 12-run third inning that turned a 2-0 game into a 14-0 rout.

The Osprey scored twice in the first on a run-scoring single by Mateo Lopez and an RBI fielder’s choice by Mann.

Rib Lake’s first 11 batters reached base in the bottom of the third inning. When it was finally over, the Osprey had 12 runs on seven hits, four walks, three hit batters and an error against three different pitchers.

It started with a walk to Mann and Scott Hueckman getting hit by a pitch. Jon Dallmann and Konieczny hit runscoring singles, Austin Zondlo was hit by a pitch as was Joe Frombach to force in a run. Levi Ewan singled in two runs. After Lopez’s blooper fell in to re-load the bases, Austin Ewan and Mann singled for a 9-0 lead, Hueckman reached on an error and Dallmann hit a sacrifice fly for the first out of the inning. By that time it was 11-0.

Konieczny singled, Zondlo and Frombach drew bases-loaded walks and the final run scored on Levi Ewan’s fielder’s choice.

Rib Lake finished things off with a three-run fifth and five-run sixth. In the fifth, Lopez drove in Zondlo with a hit and Austin Ewan lined a two-run double. Levi and Austin Ewan hit RBI singles in the sixth, which included three unearned runs.

Levi Ewan went four for six at the top of Rib Lake’s batting order and drove in four runs. Lopez was three for five with two RBIs and Austin Ewan was three for six with four RBIs.

Mann, Dallmann and Koniecnzy had two hits apiece. The Osprey finished with 18 hits.

Evan Seal was Spirit’s most successful pitcher, covering 2.2 innings midgame, striking out three and walking four while allowing four hits and three runs.

Rib Lake is off this weekend and resumes league play with a June 24 home game against Medford that starts at 7:30 p.m. Spirit has a tough one at divisionleading Everest this Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

Elsewhere in the division this weekend, the Interwald Woodticks got back to .500 at 2-2 with an extra-inning win over Minocqua. The 5-4 win in 10 innings at Rib Lake gave Minocqua a split of its weekend games. The Wood Ducks (3-2) had gotten a big 7-1 win over Wausau (2-1) on Saturday behind a strong seveninning start from Alex Fortier.

Everest did not play over the weekend. At 3-0, the Merchants hold a halfgame lead over Rib Lake and a one-game lead over Wausau.