GILMAN BASEBALL - Pirates finish sweep of Indians, but drop three of week’s four games
GILMAN BASEBALL
Columbus Catholic hit the Gilman baseball team with 10 runs over the first three innings and buried the Pirates 17-3 Tuesday in the teams’ first meeting of the week in Eastern Cloverbelt Conference play.
Ray Becker went four for five and drove in five runs, Mac Konieczny went three for four and drove in four runs and Devlin Timmler was three for five as the visiting Dons outhit Gilman 14-8. The Pirates, who were 3-0 in conference play just over a week ago were knocked down to 4-3 in the league and 8-6 overall as the schedule had toughened up a notch.
Columbus Catholic was coming off two lopsided losses of 11-1 and 12-1 to conference-leading Loyal on Saturday and Monday, but the Dons took out those frustrations pretty quickly Tuesday. They put three runs on the board in the top of the first with Becker’s two-run single being the key hit. Konieczny and Becker had two-run singles in a four-run second that made it 7-0 and an error helped lead to three more runs in the third that opened up a 10-1 lead. Gilman fought off the 10run rule with a run in the sixth that made it 12-3, but that gave the Dons the chance to score five more runs in the top of the seventh, aided by three Pirate errors.
Max Pockat went three for four to lead Gilman’s eight-hit attack. He drove in a run in the sixth to keep the game going. Connor Nichols had an RBI single in the second and Talyn Podolak added an RBI single in the fourth.
Dawson Grunseth started for Gilman and struck out four batters in four innings. He walked five and allowed seven hits. He was charged with 10 runs, but only five were earned.
Max Pockat went two innings. He struck out two, walked three and allowed three hits and two earned runs. Makii Austin got the last three outs, allowing four hits and five runs, three of which were earned.
Timmler started and went 3.2 innings for the Dons, who improved to 4-4 in league play and 10-5 overall. He struck out five, walked four and allowed three hits and two unearned runs.
The Pirates and Dons will meet again today, Thursday, in Marshfield. The Pirates then turn their attention to Neillsville-Granton. Despite heavy graduation losses after last year, the Warriors are off to a 6-0 start in league play, right behind 7-0 Loyal. Gilman goes to Neillsville Tuesday for a 4:30 p.m. game and then hosts the Warriors on May 15 at 5 p.m. The Pirates go to Alma Center Lincoln for non-conference play on May 16.
Gilman 11, Greenwood 1
Dawson Robinson threw a five-inning one-hitter and Gilman’s offense used multi-run rallies in its last three at-bats to easily take down visiting Greenwood 11-1 in a rescheduled Eastern Cloverbelt game Monday afternoon.
Leadoff hitter Lucas Halida did his job as the offensive catalyst, going four for four with four runs scored. Nichols had a hit and five runs batted in. Beau Pockat drew three walks and scored twice.
Halida doubled in the first and wound up scoring on a wild pitch. In the third, Halida hit another double, stole third and scored on a sacrifice fly by Nichols. Beau Pockat walked in the inning as well and eventually scored on Trevin Duellman’s single to make it 3-0.
The big rally was a six-run outburst in the fourth. Robinson started it by reaching on a Greenwood error. Tate Krizan bunted courtesy runner Terran Schleis to second. Halida’s hit put runners on the corners. Schleis scored on a wild pitch during Beau Pockat’s at-bat, which ended in a walk. He stole second. With two runners in scoring position, Nichols came through with a two-run single. Walks to Grunseth, Podolak and Duellman scored Nichols and passed balls during Robinson’s second at-bat of the inning scored Grunseth and Podolak to make it 9-0.
Robinson cruised through the first four innings with three strikeouts. He did hit two batters, but both were thrown out by Nichols while trying to steal second base. A hit, a walk and an error led to the Indians scoring their run in the top of the fifth.
But Gilman ended the game in the bottom half. Krizan and Halida singled and Beau Pockat walked to load the bases for Nichols, who hit a hard ground ball that got through the third baseman, scoring two runs.
Grunseth, Krizan and Duellman had a hit apiece for the Pirates, who broke a three-game losing streak.
Cadott 4, Gilman 3
Neither team got the crooked number it was looking for Friday, but the Cadott Hornets did just enough to get runners home in their 4-3 non-conference win over Gilman, who hosted the game in a late switch.
Each team scored a run in the first, fourth and seventh innings. Cadott’s run in the second wound up being the difference in a game that featured strong solid pitching from Max Pockat and Cadott’s Drew Rykal.
Despite being charged with the loss, Pockat struck out four batters, walked four and allowed only five hits and three runs, two earned, in six innings. Rykal went five innings for Cadott, striking out four, walking none and allowing four hits and two runs, one of which was earned.
Down 4-2 in the bottom of the seventh, Gilman threatened to at least put the game into extra innings. With two outs, Halida drew a walk from reliever Jacob Weeks, stole second and scored on a base hit by Beau Pockat, who took second on the throw home to get into scoring position. Weeks, though, got a strikeout to end it.
Cadott loaded the bases with one out in the top of the first and got a run on a Michael Wellner walk, but Max Pockat limited the damage with a strikeouts and a fielder’s choice. Gilman tied it in the bottom half when Halida singled, stole two bases and scored on a groundout by Nichols.
The Hornets took the lead in the second on Aiden Rykal’s single but, again, the inning could have been worse for Gilman as Cadott stranded runners on second and third. Cadott took a 3-1 lead in the fourth on Warren Bowe’s sacrifice fly. Gilman countered in the bottom half with Grunseth singling and eventually scoring on Max Pockat’s groundout.
Cadott got what wound up being a big run in the top of the seventh on another sacrifice fly by Bowe. Beau Pockat pitched the seventh for Gilman, walking two and allowing the unearned run.
Halida was three for three, walked and scored twice atop Gilman’s batting order. The Pirates outhit Cadott and left six runners on base compared to Cadott’s seven.
Loyal 6, Gilman 0
Two days after getting shut out on two hits by Loyal’s hard-throwing Rhett Lamovec, the Pirates were shut out on their home field on one hit Thursday by Cain Toufar in a 6-0 loss.
At the time, Loyal remained undefeated in Eastern Cloverbelt Conference play at 4-0 and overall at 7-0 with the win. They’ve added three more conference wins since. The Greyhounds took command of the game with five runs in the first two innings. The Pirates had more than one runner on base in only one inning and hit into two double plays, short-circuiting a couple of threats they might have made.
Gilman head coach Derek Nichols said he was happy with the pitching performances of Robinson and Beau Pockat in the loss. Robinson was a couple pitches away from really limiting the early damage and then held the Greyhounds scoreless over his last three innings.
Robinson went five innings, striking out four, walking three and allowing six hits and five runs, two of which were earned.
The earned runs came with two outs in the first. Lamovec, Loyal’s number-three hitter, launched a solo home run on a 1-2 pitch. Cleanup hitter Colten Sandelier was hit by a pitch, moved to second on a wild pitch and scored on Hunter Walter’s base hit to right.
The Pirates were one out away from getting out of top of the second as well, but Adam Keutzer’s double put runners on second and third. A run scored on an error and then Lamovec came to the plate. Three foul balls later and still with an 0-2 count, Lamovec lined a single to center to score two more runs. He finished two for four with three RBIs.
Gilman’s only hit came in the fifth when Max Pockat poked an opposite-field single to left with two outs in the fifth. That put runners on first and third, but Toufar got out of the jam by inducing a ground ball from Halida.
Walter’s RBI single in the seventh came off Beau Pockat, who pitched for the first time in several weeks. He looked good, striking out two and allowing three hits.
Toufar only struck out three Pirates and walked two, but the Greyhounds committed just one error behind him. They actually got an out on that play in the fourth when Max Pockat was tagged out after overrunning second base. Likewise, Gilman had just one error defensively.
Walter was three for four and drove in two runs for Loyal.
Gilman third baseman Talyn Podolak catches a pop-up hit by Loyal's Tryn Scheel during the top of the third inning in Thursday's 6-0 loss to the undefeated Greyhounds. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS
