Woodticks secure spot in WBA tourney with extra-inning win
5TH PLACE: INTERWALD 6, TOMAHAWK 5 (10 INN.)
The offenses did little through seven and a half innings, but from there Tomahawk and Interwald battled back and forth before the host Woodticks won Saturday’s Dairyland League crossover 6-5 on a 10th-inning walk-off bases on balls drawn by leadoff hitter David Fliehs.
The victory in the fifth-place crossover sealed a Wisconsin Baseball Association playoff berth for Interwald, who wound up 7-6 in Dairyland League play. Interwald landed in the River Falls regional bracket following Tuesday’s WBA seeding meeting. The Woodticks will face two typically tough tournament opponents, the River Falls Fighting Fish and the Sparta Miller, with the team winning that three-team pool advancing the Aug. 19-21 WBA Finals. The Finals are being hosted this year by the Mississippi Valley League at four different diamonds.
Peter Devine pitched all 10 innings and kept Interwald close until the offense finally made some things happen in the eighth. Talan Scheithauer, who is about to start his freshman year of high school, had the big hit in the eighth with the go-ahead double. Matt Mohr’s sacrifi ce fly tied the game in the bottom of the ninth and the Woodticks scored twice in the 10th to finally win it.
Tomahawk ended its season at 3-10 in league games.
The Titans got a strong start from pitcher Eli Wurl before he eventually tired. They took a 2-0 lead in the top of the fourth when Jacob Jarvensivu doubled and was along for the ride when Cody Brietzke launched a two-run homer. That’s where it stayed for the next several innings.
Tomahawk stranded multiple runners in the fourth, fifth and seventh innings. Interwald left two runners on in the fifth and loaded the bases in the sixth but could not score.
Finally, Interwald broke through in the bottom of the eighth. With one out, Mohr walked, Nick Gerstberger singled and Logan Blomberg singled in a run. That set the stage for Scheithauer, whose two-out double drove in a pair and put Interwald up 3-2.
The Titans responded in the top of the ninth, getting a leadoff double from Wurl, a one-out single from Nick Kahle and two-out singles from Jarvensivu and Brietzke to regain the lead at 4-3.
Back came Interwald in the bottom half. Fliehs led off with a single. He moved to third on a steal and a groundout by Jake Borman to put himself into position to score on Mohr’s fly ball to left and knot things up at 4-4.
Playing by Major League Baseball extra- inning rules, Tomahawk started the top of the 10th with a runner on second. That runner quickly scored on a base hit to give the Titans a 5-4 lead. But Devine got a fly ball, a strikeout and a ground ball to avoid further damage.
Jeff Borman started the bottom half as Interwald’s runner at second base and was pushed across to tie the game as Logan Blomberg singled, Scheithauer hit a fielder’s choice and Luke Blomberg singled. Randy Raasch walked to load the bases with one out for Fliehs, who also walked to drive in Scheithauer with the winning run.
Gerstberger had a big day at the plate, going four for five and Logan Blomberg had two of Interwald’s 13 hits, seven of which came in the eighth inning or later. Devine allowed nine hits, struck out seven and walked three in the left-hander’s 10-inning outing.
