Tough closing stretch starts with 12-2 loss; Redmen sweep Prentice

RIB LAKE SOFTBALL

The stretch run against the top two softball teams in the Marawood North began Tuesday for the Rib Lake Lady Redmen with a 12-2, five-inning loss at Phillips.

The Loggers used four-run rallies in the first two innings to put the game out of reach early and improve to 6-1 in the North and 12-2 overall. Phillips can clinch at least a share of the North title by winning the rematch in Rib Lake scheduled for today, Thursday, weather permitting.

It seemed weather was going to be a factor in Phillips when skies darkened in the area, but very little rain fell and a lightning delay lasted only about a half an hour.

“Phillips has a really, really nice team,” Rib Lake head coach Dennis Scheithauer said. “They’re well-coached. All of their infielders have really good arms. You can tell they’ve played awhile and played together a lot. I think they only have one senior as well. You can tell they play summer ball. They handle the ball very well.”

On the plus side for Rib Lake, the hitters made a lot of contact with just two strikeouts and they collected four hits. Three of them came in the fourth when the Redmen scored their runs. Kyla Kennedy led off the inning with a double, went to third on Emily Rodman’s sacrifi ce and scored on Molly Heiser’s double. Heiser scored on a single by Leah Chmielowiec. Tessa Krause had Rib Lake’s fourth hit.

Phillips got nine hits off Rodman, who walked six and struck out one. Rib Lake limited its errors to three, which Phillips still took advantage.

The Loggers got four runs on two hits, two walks and an error in the first and four runs on four hits in the second, including a pair of triples.

While the Loggers will finish league play with today’s rematch, Rib Lake (3-2, 3-10) has two more conference games left next week with Athens. At 4-1 in league play and 10-7 overall, Athens is in good position to tie Phillips for first place when all is said and done.

The Blue Jays will be in Rib Lake Tuesday, while Rib Lake goes to Athens on June 3 for 4:45 p.m. first pitches.

“Whether we win or not to me is irrelevant. It’s how well you play,” Scheithauer said. “Are we getting better? Can we get you in the right positions? You may not always make the play, I get it. It’s all about getting better.”

Columbus 14, Rib Lake 0

In a game moved to Marshfield Monday that successfully avoided the wet weather in Taylor County, a six-run second inning set the tone in a 14-0, fiveinning non-conference win for Columbus Catholic.

Hailey Zimmerman was the star of the day for Columbus, going three for four with two home runs, including a second- grand slam. She also pitched the first three innings and struck out six batters.

Rib Lake, playing as the home team, had just one hit, a single by Rodman.

“We only had five base runners,” Scheithauer said. “We had three bases on balls, one hit and they had one error. That makes it tough.”

Reinhardt was Rib Lake’s starting pitcher and threw a scoreless first before running into trouble in the second. It was 9-0 after four innings and the Dons tacked on five more in the fifth against Reinhardt and reliever Danielle Mann.

Columbus Catholic improved to 4-5 overall with the win.

Rib Lake 28, Prentice 12

Rib Lake completed a regular-season sweep of Prentice on Thursday, using a huge 18-run fifth inning to put away the Buccaneers 28-12. The Redmen started the fifth inning down 11-10.

Two days after the teams played to an 8-5 score, Scheithauer said Thursday simply was a tough day to be a pitcher.

“The weather did play a factor,” he said. “It was pretty good to start out with. Damp, but certainly playable. About the second and third inning it started raining a little bit. It was a light rain that stayed with us for about an inning and a half or two innings. It got a little slick in the pitching area. Girls were struggling and we definitely took advantage of that.”

Rib Lake scored its 28 runs on just six hits. Prentice’s pitchers, however, issued 18 walks and hit 12 batters. Josie Scheithauer, Reinhardt, Rhonnie Jo Scheithauer, Mann and Kennedy had Rib Lake’s hits.

Kennedy got the start in the circle, while Rodman closed it out.

“Give the girls credit, they hung in there,” Scheithauer said. “I think we hit five of their batters and issued four bases on balls as well. All of the pitchers struggled. But we fought through it and were able to pull that one out.”

For a team that has been on the wrong end of eight games shortened by run rules, Scheithauer said Thursday’s win was a nice change of pace.

“It was fun to be on that end of it for a change,” he said.