Zero wins for three local teams during WBA’s regional weekend

DAIRYLAND LEAGUE BASEBALL

The Dairyland League started Wisconsin Baseball Association tournament play Friday with representation from nine team, but it ended Sunday with just one advancing to the WBA Finals being hosted this weekend by the Mississippi Valley League.

None of the three Taylor County playoff squads are that state-qualifying team as the Whittlesey Reds, Rib Lake Osprey and Interwald Woodticks all went 0-2 in their respective pools during the WBA’s regional weekend where 36 teams battled for 12 spots in the state tournament.

With the 12th seed, Whittlesey was the highest ranked team of the local squads heading into regional weekend based on their 9-4 league record. The Reds, however, were tripped up by the 36th-seeded Eau Claire Rivermen 9-6 in their first game Saturday night in Ellsworth.

Behind strong pitching from Spike Alexander and some timely hitting, the Reds built a 6-3 lead through eight innings. Thomas Mildbrand hit a gametying single and Cody Loertscher added a go-ahead two-run single in a four-run bottom of the sixth that gave the Reds the three-run cushion.

But a hit batter and a misplayed fly ball helped the Rivermen put three runs on the board to tie the game. Eau Claire then quickly loaded the bases in the top of the 10th and turned that into three more runs.

Earlier on Saturday, the 13th-seeded Hudson River Rats beat Eau Claire 3-0, meaning Whittlesey had to beat Hudson Sunday afternoon by more than a ninerun margin to win a state berth via tiebreaker. That didn’t come close to happening as Hudson rolled to a 10-2 win over the Reds to clinch a state berth.

In regional play at Chippewa Falls, the host Tilden Tigers, the fourth seed heading into the weekend crushed Rib Lake 12-2 in the Friday night opener which, for all intents and purposes, knocked the Osprey out of state contention. The 21stseeded Viroqua Sox made it official on Saturday, using a one-hit, eight--inning start from pitcher Jordan Hauser to defeat 28th-seeded Rib Lake 8-2. Tilden clinched the state berth from the pool on Sunday, using a nine-run first inning to blow out the Sox 13-4.

The Interwald Woodticks were overmatched by host River Falls 14-0 on Friday, but actually outhit Sparta 10-3 on Saturday, but the Miller turned base runners and fielding miscues into runs in a 7-3 win over the Woodticks.

River Falls won the pool with a 4-0 victory over Sparta on Sunday.

The Fighting Fish broke open Friday’s game with an eight-run bottom of the fourth inning that turned a 2-0 game into a 10-0 rout. After two runs had already scored, the big hits came from Trey Larson, who blooped in a two-run single; Ty Denzer, who hit a two-run double, and Andy Metcalf, who singled in a pair to knock starting pitcher Peter Devine out of the game.

Interwald had just one hit, a sixth-inning single by Seth Mudgett, Interwald’s drafted player from Medford, and was unable to produce runs after drawing five walks from three River Falls pitchers in seven innings. Strebig drew three of the walks.

The Woodticks had a brief 2-0 lead in Saturday’s game with Sparta. Mudgett started the game with a double, David Fliehs reached on an infield single and Matt Mohr’s fly to right moved Mudgett to third. He scored on Dalton Strebig’s infield single to deep short. After Nick Gerstberger singled, Fliehs scored on a wild pitch.

But Sparta tied the game in the bottom of the first and took a 5-2 lead in the third as an error, a sacrifice bunt and a walk set up an RBI single for Spencer Hans, an RBI groundout by Bronson Moget and a run-scoring wild pitch by Logan Blomberg. Gerstberger doubled and later scored on a throwing error by Sparta catcher Jake Earll in the fifth to cut the lead to 5-3, but the Miller added an unearned run without a hit in the sixth and turned a third-strike wild pitch by Mudgett into a run on a sacrifice fly in the seventh.

Interwald let a golden opportunity to get back into the game get away in the top of the seventh, but after allowing three singles to start the inning, Sparta pitcher Drake Beckham got a shallow fly ball and two strikeouts to escape unscathed. He went the distance, striking out seven and walking five.

Blomberg and Mudgett both pitched four innings for Interwald. Blomberg allowed two hits and five runs, two of which were earned. He struck out three and walked five. Mudgett allowed a hit and two runs, one earned, while striking out three and walking three. Gerstberger was three for five and Mudgett and Strebig both went two for four.

Wausau advances

The Wausau Riverhawks were the only Dairyland League team to advance to this weekend’s WBA State Finals. They pulled off an upset on Sunday, knocking off third-seeded Holmen 3-2 at Chippewa Falls to win their pool. Wausau beat the Lake Superior Sea Dogs 6-5 on Saturday night.

Wausau is the 11th seed out of 12 Finals qualifiers and is in Pool 3 with thirdseeded Spooner and sixth-seeded Hudson. Wausau will play Spooner Friday at 7:30 p.m. in Viroqua and Hudson at 10 a.m. Saturday, also in Viroqua.

The Wisconsin Rapids RedHawks entered regional weekend as the numberone overall seed, but their state hopes were dashed by the Brill Millers, who knocked them off 8-3 Saturday in Marshfi eld. Rapids finished 1-1 in its pool with a 7-2 win over Elmwood.

Also in Marshfield, the host Chaparrals, the 35th seed, lost 3-1 to state-bound Washburn and 13-3 to the Eau Claire Bears.

The Everest Merchants were the second seed going into regional play at Merrill. They put themselves into position to get to state with a 6-5 win over Spring Valley Saturday afternoon. But a 4-3 loss to the Eau Claire Cavaliers on Sunday produced a three-way tie in the pool and the Cavaliers won it by allowing eight runs in their two games. Everest allowed nine and Spring Valley allowed 10.

The host Merrill Rangers went 0-2 in pool play, falling 5-2 to Jim Falls and 5-4 to pool winner Hayward.

At Ellsworth, the Minocqua Wood Ducks dropped a close 3-1 decision to host Hubbers on Friday night and were taken down 12-4 by the statebound Tony Hayshakers Saturday afternoon.