RIB LAKE SOFTBALL DOUBLING UP ON 16-6 WINS - Redmen finally beat Athens, rock Spencer
RIB LAKE SOFTBALL
DOUBLING UP ON 16-6 WINS
The Rib Lake softball team finally put an end to the program’s Athens hex Tuesday, using a 12-run fourth inning to beat the host Blue Jays 16-6 in the Marawood North opener.
The big inning reversed an early 4-2 Athens lead. While Athens was able to extend the game to a full seven innings, the Redmen made sure the Jays didn’t seriously threaten their big lead.
While this year’s Athens team isn’t as deep as many of its recent teams, this was still a significant win, according to Rib Lake head coach Craig Scheithauer. The last Rib Lake softball win over Athens was a 16-9 victory on May 5, 2011. The Blue Jays won the next 26.
“We got the monkey off our back,” Scheithauer said. “We’ve had Athens on the ropes a couple of times over the year and just found a way to not come out on top. There have been others where they beat us pretty good too. But it’s good to get over that hump.”
Offensively, Rib Lake finished with 19 hits, including four from leadoff hitter Addison Gumz and three each from the next three in the batting order, Tahlia Scheithauer, Avery Niemi and Tessa Weik. Niemi drove in five runs, including four in the big fourth inning.
“We hit the ball hard,” Craig Scheithauer said. “Even our outs were hit hard. There were some missiles.” Even with the high run and hit totals there were some lost chances to score even more. One of those was in the top of the first when the Redmen left the bases loaded and did not score. Rib Lake took a 2-1 lead in the second when Scheithauer hit a two-run single with one out and the bases loaded. The Redmen re-loaded the bases, but left the runners stranded again. The Blue Jays scored three in their half of the third to take their two-run lead.
But then the roof caved in on the home team.
Gumz singled and Scheithauer reached on an error. Both advanced with stolen bases and scored on Niemi’s single to tie the game. Weik doubled and Madi Blomberg crushed a ball off the fence in left-center for a two-run double. Madelyn Dallmann had a run-scoring single, Gumz hit a sacrifice fly, Niemi hit another tworun single, two scored on a misplayed fly ball hit by Weik and an error on a ball hit by Dallmann allowed a couple more runs to score.
When the inning was done, 16 batters had come to the plate with 12 of them scoring for a 14-4 lead.
Athens pushed across single runs in the fourth and fifth innings before Rib Lake finished the scoring with two runs in the seventh thanks to an error and consecutive singles by Scheithauer, Niemi and Weik.
Kiana Dallmann finished off her seveninning pitching outing by getting out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the bottom of the seventh with two strikeouts and a groundout.
The win puts Rib Lake at 4-2 overall heading into a rematch with Athens tonight, Thursday, in Rib Lake. First pitch is at 4:45 p.m.
Rib Lake 16, Spencer 6
There was no stopping Rib Lake’s offense Monday as the Redmen pounded out 17 hits and scored in every inning of a 16-6, five-inning non-conference win over Spencer in the 2025 home opener.
Gumz went four for five atop the batting order and scored twice. Scheithauer and Blomberg had three hits each and Weik blasted a three-run homer in a five-run third that temporarily broke the game open, making it 11-0.
The Rockets, though, scored all six of their runs in the top of the fourth to close the gap, but Rib Lake tacked on four more runs in the bottom half to go up 15-6 and the Redmen quickly got to a 10-run lead to end the game in the next inning.
Weik was the winning pitcher. She allowed seven hits and just one earned run while throwing all five innings. She struck out six and walked four.
Spencer stranded two runners to start the game, then Rib Lake jumped ahead 50 in the bottom of the first. Gumz singled and went to second when the ball was misplayed in centerfield. Scheithauer’s bloop single and Niemi’s walk loaded the bases. An error on Weik’s ground ball allowed Gumz to score. Blomberg drove in a run with a sacrifice fly, Lily Butler later hit a two-run triple to the gap in leftcenter and Madelyn Dallmann singled in Butler.
Blomberg’s single drove in Niemi in the second. Rib Lake’s five-run rally in the third all came with two outs. Kara Kennedy walked and scored on a double by Gumz. Gumz scored on Scheithauer’s single. After Niemi singled, Weik hit her three-run bomb well over the fence in straightaway center.
Three errors gave Spencer its chance to get back into it in the fourth and the Rockets took advantage. Ema Schultz had the big hit in the inning, a two-run double. The Redmen, however, got a run-scoring infield hit from Gumz, a bases-loaded walk from Niemi and two more runs on an errant throw by catcher Alexa Weber after the Rockets had gotten a forceout at home.
Scheithauer’s single knocked in Butler with the clinching run in the fifth.
Niemi also had a multi-hit day for Rib Lake, going two for two with two walks and four runs scored. Madelyn Dallmann was two for four as well.
Berklie Ireland took the loss for Spencer while striking out one and walking seven.
Marathon 3, Rib Lake 2
The Redmen suffered their first loss of the season Friday when host Marathon scored twice in the bottom of the seventh to steal a 3-2 non-conference win.
The unfortunate ending pinned an undeserved loss on pitcher Kiana Dallmann, who got one out in the seventh before running out of gas, allowing a single and a walk. Weik relieved her at that point, but Danica Staus then had the walkoff hit, driving in both runners.
Dallmann struck out five, walked three and allowed just four hits in 6.1 innings. The Red Raiders got an unearned run in the bottom of the second inning, but Rib Lake took the lead in the fourth.
Niemi started it by reaching on an error. She moved to second on a passed ball. With two outs, Kiana Dallmann reached on an error and Butler knocked in both runners with a clutch base hit.
Unfortunately, that was it offensively for the Redmen, who stranded a runner in the fifth and had two runners in scoring position in the sixth but couldn’t get the big hit.
Rib Lake had six hits, one each by Butler, Kennedy, Kiana Dallmann, Blomberg, Niemi and Gumz.
Rib Lake’s Tessa Weik watches her fly ball sail over the centerfield fence for a threerun homer during the third inning of the team’s 16-6 win over Spencer Monday. The homer gave the Redmen an 11-0 lead. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS
