center that Newman’s Josh Klement ….

center that Newman’s Josh Klement and Noah Martin let drop. Gumz still should have been an easy out at second, but the throw to the infield was wide, so Borchardt wound up with a single. Logan Blomberg singled to load the bases with no outs. After Yanko struck out, Jake Matyka hit a sacrifice fly to center, scoring Gumz. Martin dropped Andrew Wudi’s fly to right, allowing Borchardt to score. With Blomberg at third and Wudi at first, the Redmen used some baserunning trickery as Wudi intentionally got caught in a rundown and stayed in it long enough to allow Blomberg to steal home.

“We’ve been practicing that the whole last week,” Blomberg said “(Iverson) said we might not have used it yet, but we’re going to. He was right. It worked out for us. I just sit there and I wait for (Iverson) to say go. That’s it. I don’t have to worry about anything. He knows more than I do.”

While Rib Lake lost the coin flip and was the visiting team for the game, the seniors said that may have worked in the team’s favor as it gave them the chance to create early momentum.

“That was big,” Blomberg said. “I’d almost rather be the away team because you can do that.”

“I always like starting out with runs,” Yanko said. “It helps a lot to get up.”

Yanko came up big in the top of the fifth. With Rib Lake leading 3-1, Borchardt singled with one out and Logan Blomberg walked. After strikeouts in his first two plate appearances, Yanko drove a 3-2 pitch from Josh Klement to the fence in right-center on one hop to score both runners and widen the lead.

“I was happy,” Yanko said. “It made me feel a lot better to finally get one. Just staying alive and not striking out again was all I was thinking.”

“I was on first base and off the bat and I was looking at Mr. I and he was screaming, go!” Blomberg said. “Usually we turn and wait for it to drop, so I knew he hit it well.”

Jackson Blomberg singled in the sixth and eventually scored on a pinch-hit sacrifi ce fly to close the scoring. Borchardt closed things out by retiring three of four batters he faced in the bottom of the seventh, the last of which came on a looking strikeout of Prey.

Borchardt finished three for four at the plate and scored twice. Logan Blomberg, Yanko, Jackson Blomberg and Dominic Quednow had one hit apiece.

Nate Klement took the loss while going three innings for Newman (11-10).