WIAA DIV. 4 BASEBALL REGIONAL - Big fourth inning is turning point as Redmen win regional title
Talon and Slade Scheithauer combined to limit Loyal’s potent offense to just five hits and Brady Heiser led a 12-hit attack with three hits and three runs batted in to lead Rib Lake to an 8-5 win Thursday in a WIAA Division 4 baseball regional final.
The third-seeded Redmen grabbed control in this battle of conference champions in the top of the fourth inning when they turned a 4-2 deficit into a 6-4 lead and took Loyal’s ace pitcher Rhett Lamovec off the mound with that four-run rally. After a bit of a shaky start, the pitching and defense settled in from there, ending the season for the second-seeded Eastern Cloverbelt Conference champions at 16-3.
Rib Lake advanced to Tuesday’s WIAA Division 4 sectional tournament in Athens, where a loss to Edgar ended its season at 18-6. The regional championship was Rib Lake’s 17th under the direction of 42nd-year head coach Dick Iverson.
“We had seen some good pitching coming in,” Iverson said. “Three games in a row we saw Stratford who had a hard thrower, Marathon had a kid who threw pretty hard and then we saw Medford. I think we were kind of ready for it a little bit. We played well.”
Heiser’s big day at the plate started with a two-out, RBI single in the top of the first inning that scored Talon Scheithauer. After Lamovec struck out the first two hitters of the game, Scheithauer singled and had moved to second when Ethan Cook was hit by a pitch.
Loyal responded with three runs in the bottom half, turning two walks into a tworun double from Colten Sandelier and as RBI groundout from Tryn Scheel.
Rib Lake loaded the bases in the third and got one run out of it on Tyler Matyka’s single. Loyal got that right back on an RBI single from Sandelier.
Lamovec, who appeared to be pitching through a leg injury, ran into immediate trouble when Slade Scheithauer singled, stole second and took third on a wild pitch and Seth Borchardt walked and moved to second on a passed ball to start the fourth. Lamovec struck out Talon Scheithauer to get one out. But then Loyal made a big mistake on Ethan Cook’s comebacker. The Greyhounds nearly tagged out Scheithauer at home plate, but he scrambled back to third without a throw, loading the bases for Heiser.
One run scored on a wild pitch. Then Heiser, one of Rib Lake’s top run producers this season came through as he smacked the go-ahead two-run double deep into the gap in right-center. Amazingly, that was Heiser’s seventh hit in a row going back to the previous day’s game with Spencer.
“(Lamovec) was throwing hard, but he has an ankle injury,” Iverson said. “We kinda got onto him and knocked him out. But he was hurting. We took advantage of a couple of errors they had and we started hitting the ball.”
Andy Petkovsek took over the pitching for Loyal at that point. Pinch-runner Aiden Stapleton then scored when the Greyhounds booted a ground ball hit by Brevin Brahmer.
Loyal pulled within 6-5 on Hunter Walter’s RBI single in the fifth. But freshman Lucas Cook, Rib Lake’s numbernine hitter, gave the Redmen a jolt to start the last inning when he pulled a leadoff solo homer over the fence in rightfield. Borchardt later singled, stole second and scored an insurance run when Loyal threw away a dropped third strike against Ethan Cook.
Heiser finished three for five, Borchardt and Blake Henderson both went two for four in the win. Lucas Cook was two for three.
Talon Scheithauer got the win. In 5.2 innings, he allowed five hits, five runs, four earned, and four walks while striking out five. One of the walks was intentional. Slade Scheithauer got the last four outs, walking one and striking out three.
Lamovec struck out seven, but walked three, hit two and allowed seven hits and six runs, five earned, in 3.1 innings. Petkovsek covered the 3.2 innings and allowed five hits and two runs, one earned, while striking out five and walking one.
Sandelier led the Greyhounds offensively, going two for two with two walks and three RBIs.
Rib Lake 8, Spencer 1
Rib Lake started WIAA tournament play on June 4, a day later than expected due to rain, and took care of 11th-seeded Spencer 8-1 in a regional semifinal and the final home game of 2025.
The Rockets were hit with a tough break right off the bat when their top player, Reed Knecht, who they had also planned to start at pitcher, cut up his hand on a slide during the top of the first inning and was lost for the game. The Redmen then jumped ahead with three runs off the Rockets and their next man up, Tyler Peterson, in the bottom of the first.
Slade Scheithauer led off with a hit and stole second. Borchardt walked, then Scheithauer scored after two wild pitches. Ethan Cook’s base hit scored Borcahrdt. After Heiser’s hit, Brahmer drove in Cook with a sacrifice fly.
Rib Lake struck for two more in the fourth. Slade Scheithauer walked, stole second and scored on a misplayed ball hit by Talon Scheithauer, who scored on Ethan Cook’s hit. The Redmen made it 6-0 in the fifth when Heiser had a hit, moved to second when Brahmer was hit by a pitch and scored on Matyka’s hit.
After Spencer scored its run on a Connor Cook groundout in the top of the sixth, Rib Lake closed the scoring in the bottom half. Talon Scheithauer singled, Ethan Cook walked, Heiser hit an RBI single and Brahmer hit his second sacrifice fly of the game.
Spencer loaded the bases in the top of the seventh, but Rib Lake got out of it before it turned into a serious threat.
Borchardt got the win with a solid 5.1inning start. He struck out six, walked four and allowed five hits and an earned run. Slade Scheithauer struck out out two in 1.1 innings. He allowed a hit and walked two. Ty Niemi allowed a hit and got the last out with a strikeout.
