Rib Lake gets a win in WBA play; Reds go 0-2 at Hayward
The Rib Lake Osprey outslugged Chippewa Falls 11-8 Saturday night, but their season ended Sunday afternoon in a 15-1 blowout loss to Prescott in Wisconsin Baseball Association District tournament play in River Falls.
The fifth-seeded Osprey scored eight runs in the first three innings and never trailed while upsetting the third-seeded Lumberjacks in their opener at First National Bank Field. They held leads of 8-3 and 10-5 before settling for the three-run win.
Unfortunately, the second game on Sunday was never close as the secondseeded Pirates built an 11-1 lead by the end of the third inning and coasted to earn a berth in this weekend’s Wisconsin Baseball Association 2021 Championship Tournament.
Against Chippewa Falls, Rib Lake broke a 3-3 tie with a four-run second inning, highlighted by a two-run homer by Jake Brehm that made it 6-3. Zack Iverson, drafted from Interwald, added a two-out RBI double. Brehm added an RBI double in the fifth to make it a 10-5 game.
It stayed that way until the bottom of the sixth when Chippewa Falls threatened, getting a run on three singles. Bryant Konieczny relieved starter Austin Edwards and hit a batter and allowed an RBI groundout, but got out of the jam with no further damage, keeping Rib Lake ahead 10-7. Each team scored a run in the ninth.
Brehm hit two doubles and his homer to go three for four with three RBIs and two walks. Levi Ewan also went three for four for Rib Lake. Edwards got the win by working around 13 hits and seven earned runs in 5.1 innings. He struck out three and hit three. Konieczny got the save, allowing two hits and no earned runs in 3.2 innings. He struck out two, walked three and hit two. Each of Chippewa Falls’ top seven hitters had two hits apiece, but that wasn’t enough for the Lumberjacks, who also lost 4-1 to Prescott Saturday.
Prescott, a WBA power in recent years scored four runs on five hits in the first inning and added an RBI triple by Peter Brookshaw and RBI double from Mike Brookshaw in the second. Levi Ewan’s RBI single got Rib Lake on the board in the top of the third, but five more Pirate runs in the bottom half put it away.
Jeff Ziembo had two hits for Rib Lake. Levi Ewan took the loss, lasting just twoplus innings, while Jon Dallmann and Mateo Lopez finished it off on the mound. Rib Lake earned its playoff spot by going 6-5 this summer in the Dairyland League.
Reds fall twice
The Whittlesey Reds lost a late lead in their first game at the Hayward District tournament and fell 8-4 to the Lake Superior Sea Dogs and then got blown out 13-1 by the Eau Claire Bears Sunday to end their 2021 season.
In the Saturday night game, Whittlesey outhit the Sea Dogs 10-5 and scored single runs in the second and third innings and tacked on two more in the fourth to build a 4-0 lead.
But Lake Superior reliever Conner Fonger shut the Reds out the rest of the way, which allowed the Sea Dogs to hang around. Once they got their shot in the seventh, they took advantage by scoring five times, including the go-ahead threerun double by Justin Sedin.
A three-run eighth inning put it away for Lake Superior, who lost 5-2 to Eau Claire in its first game of the tournament.
Eau Claire clinched a state berth Sunday by taking care of the Reds in seven innings. Tyler Gray went six innings to pick up the win and everyone in Eau Claire’s batting order got into the hit column.
Whittlesey ended a season that included a piece of the Dairyland League title. The Reds were one of five teams to finish 8-3 in league play.
Rest of the league
The Marshfield Chaparrals won their pool at the Haugen District tournament and is the Dairyland League’s only representative in this weekend’s championship tournament, which will be held in Marshfield and Merrill.
The Chaps won a close one with Chaseburg- Coon Valley 8-7 on Saturday morning and then took care of Haugen Hornets 10-2 on Sunday afternoon to secure their state berth. Marshfield will open the championship tournament Friday with a 6:30 p.m. game against 2020 WBA champion River Falls at Jack Hackman Field at 6:30 p.m. Marshfield will play the Holmen Features on Saturday to complete pool play.
The Everest Merchants and Wausau River Hawks had chances to win their pools on Sunday but weren’t able to get their second victories in district play.
At Osceola, Everest, playing as a oneseed, took down the host Osceola Braves 5-2 in its first game, but lost a close 4-3 decision to the fourth-seeded Spooner Cardinals, who got the state berth out of that pool. In Sparta, Wausau edged Sparta 3-2 to set up a matchup with Osseo for the state berth. Osseo won it 7-2.
The Merrill Rangers went 1-1 at Haugen, falling 11-1 to the pool champion Haugen Knights and beating Whitehall 17-11.
Another of the Dairyland’s co-champions, the Minocqua Wood Ducks, lost 11-4 to Spring Valley and 9-1 to Tilden at Osceola. The Tomahawk Titans were defeated by Hudson 10-0 and 8-1 by Viroqua at the Sparta District tournament.
