DAIRYLAND LEAGUE LARGE DIVISION - Reds shut out in Sunday pitcher’s duel; Abby gets sweep

Nick Retterath gave the Whittlesey Reds a starting pitching outing that would win probably nine times out of 10 in Dairyland League baseball.

But on Sunday, Abbotsford’s Payton Schreiber was even better, firing a complete-game four-hit shutout to lead the Merchants to a 3-0 win at Mike Roiger Stadium.

The result completed a two-game sweep of the teams’ weekend series in Large Division play. Abbotsford also won 6-4 at home on Friday. The losses dropped Whittlesey to 4-3 in league play into a logjam in the Large Division standings well behind the Wisconsin Rapids Redhawks, who remained at 4-0 with their Sunday doubleheader at Rhinelander being postponed.

Sunday’s game was scoreless until the top of the seventh when Blake Bargender took advantage of one of Retterath’s few mistakes. He waited back nicely an offspeed pitch and pulled it down the leftfield line for a leadoff solo home run that wound up being the only run Abbotsford would need.

The Merchants, though, tacked on two insurance runs in the ninth. Brett Nelson was hit by a one-out pitch, ending Retterath’s outing. Brandon Loertscher relieved him and, after a wild pitch, allowed Aaron Morrow’s RBI single. With two outs and the bases loaded, JV Castillo beat out an infield hit to score Morrow.

Retterath went 8.1 innings, allowing just three hits and two earned runs. He struck out nine, walked four and hit one. Loertscher was charged with two hits allowed, an earned run, a walk and a hit batter while striking out one in two-thirds of an inning.

The Reds stranded two runners in the bottom of the second and, after that, their chances were limited by Schreiber, a 2025 Abbotsford High School grad. He struck out five and walked two. The Reds left one runner on base in the third, fourth and seventh innings. Logan Baumgartner led off the bottom of the ninth with a laser beam liner that Schreiber speared for the first out. Brandon Loertscher singled, but Schreiber got a strikeout and a foul pop-up to end it.

Abbotsford’s other best scoring chance against Retterath was in the top of the first. Tanner Hraby hit a leadoff double and moved to third on Blake Jakobi’s groundout. But Hraby couldn’t score on Castillo’s lineout to shallow center. Lucas Stahnke lined out to Baumgartner at short to end the inning. The Merchants also stranded two runners in the fifth.

Spike Alexander, Darren Leonhard and Cody Loertscher had the rest of Whittlesey’s hits.

The Reds resume league play Sunday at Merrill.

In Friday’s game at Red Arrow Park, Abbotsford built a 4-0 lead through four innings and tacked on two more runs in the sixth inning to earn its 6-4 win over Whittlesey in game one of the weekend series.

Castillo and Hraby combined for the win with Castillo starting and going 4.2 innings. He allowed five hits, two earned runs, two walks and a hit batter while striking out two. Hraby got credit for the relief win. In 4.1 innings, he allowed seven hits, two earned runs and a walk while striking out two.

Chandler Schmidt started for Whittlesey and got through the first two innings before Abbotsford grabbed the lead with a three-run third. Mateo Lopez started it with a bloop single. After Schreiber walked, Stahnke, Bargender and Nelson followed with consecutive runscoring singles. Baumgartner took over the pitching duties for Whittlesey in the fourth and ran into immediate trouble as Abbotsford loaded the bases with no outs. He and the Reds were able to limit the damage to Stahnke’s one-out, RBI single.

Whittlesey cut Abbotsford’s lead in half in the top of the fifth. Brent Mueller and Cody Loertscher both singled and Parker Lissner walked to load the bases with one out. Castillo struck out Darren Leonhard but Spike Alexander found the right spot, blooping in a two-run single to shallow center to drive in two runs. Hraby relieved Castillo and ended the inning by getting Brandon Loertscher to pop out to Schreiber at first base.

In the bottom of the sixth, Stahnke drove in his second run of the game on his third single of the night. An error allowed Abbotsford to score its last run of the game.

Mueller doubled in the eighth and scored on a two-out error. Baumgartner and Brandon Loertscher singled to start a potential Whittlesey rally in the ninth, but the rally fizzled on three straight ground balls though Baumgartner scored on Restyn Kraschnewski’s grounder.

Brandon Loertscher and Mueller both went three for five in the loss. Schmidt allowed three earned runs, five hits and two walks and hit a batter while striking out one in three innings. Baumgartner covered the last five innings. He struck out six, walked one and allowed three runs, two earned on four hits.

Lopez was three for five for Abbotsford.