Abby-Colby ends five-game win streak, closes in on title
RIB LAKE BASEBALL
One four-run rally was just enough for the Rib Lake Redmen to pull out a 4-3 Marawood North win over visiting Phillips Monday as the teams battled each other and some mid-game raindrops.
With the field on the verge of being unplayable in the sixth, the light but steady rain finally subsided and allowed the teams to get the full game in. The win got Rib Lake to 6-3 in North play heading into its last league game today, Thursday, at Phillips at 4:45 p.m.
The Redmen are 7-4 overall. The Loggers jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the top of the first, but from there, Michael Borchardt and Jackson Blomberg combined to limit the Loggers to just one more run over the last six innings. That was big because, other than the third, the offense didn’t give them much support, stranding 10 runners in six at-bats.
“Michael really rebounded well after a rough first inning and Jackson really threw the ball well at the end,” Rib Lake head coach Dick Iverson said. “We just had way too many runners left on base. Second and third no outs, didn’t score. Bases loaded one out, didn’t score. Bases loaded with two outs and didn’t score. We didn’t put any pressure on their defense. We popped up or struck out. We can’t do that. We were fortunate to win that game. We obviously should have had a lot more runs than what we did, but give them credit too for throwing strikes.”
Phillips (5-3, 6-4) threw a quick opening punch with a James Bruhn triple, a Levi Derr walk, an RBI single by Drew Hauschild and a run-scoring single by Ethan Podmolik before the Redmen even got an out. But Borchardt quickly got three outs after that, two of them by strikeout, to limit the damage.
Rib Lake’s senior co-captain wound up pitching four solid innings, allowing three runs, five walks and five hits. He struck out four. Blomberg allowed just one hit in three scoreless innings and struck out five.
A potential first-inning rally for Rib Lake died with the bases loaded when Ethan Cook hit a liner right to Hauschild at first base, who easily doubled up Borchardt for the unassisted inning-ending double play. But in the third, the Redmen broke through.
Seth Borchardt, the number-nine hitter in the order, started it by beating out an infield hit. Talon Scheithauer dumped a single into shallow centerfield and Logger pitcher James Bruhn walked Andrew Wudi to load the bases with no outs.
Bruhn struck out Blomberg looking, but Michael Borchardt’s infield single drove in the first run. Cook then got the big hit, bouncing a two-run single to left. Dominic Quednow made it 4-2 with an RBI groundout.
John Felch doubled, Ayden Tobias singled and Asa Tobias hit a sacrifice fly to give the Loggers another run in the fourth. But that was it for the offense as Rib Lake left two runners on base in the fourth, left them loaded in the fifth and stranded one more in the sixth.
“It was amazing we got this in,” Iverson said. “That was good. I give the kids credit for hanging in there. We can’t keep (leaving runners on). That’s been our story lately. That’s what we did last year. I just told the kids we did that last year, then all of a sudden we started getting those runners in and that’s when we got on a roll. That’s what we have to do, put it in play, put a little pressure on the defense.”
Cook was two for four with two runs batted in and Scheithauer was two for three with a walk. Blomberg, Michael Borchardt and Seth Borchardt had a hit apiece. Bruhn took the loss for Phillips, allowing six hits, four runs, two walks and two hit batters in four innings.
After today’s rematch in Phillips, Rib Lake is scheduled to travel to Stratford Friday for a Marawood crossover and then host Thorp Monday and Edgar Tuesday of next week.
At Abbotsford’s Red Arrow Park, Blomberg’s two-run single give Rib Lake a 2-0 third-inning lead Thursday, but Abbotsford- Colby shut out the Redmen after that and earned a 7-2 win that clinched a second straight outright Marawood North title for the Falcons.
Two days after beating the Redmen 10-5 in Rib Lake, Abbotsford-Colby got a strong outing from Brandon Diedrich, who went the distance, striking out nine, walking two and allowing just four hits and two earned runs.
Abbotsford-Colby quickly dug out of its two-run deficit by scoring four in the bottom of the third and the hosts tacked on three more runs in their last two atbats. A 13-9 win at Chequamegon Friday gave Abbotsford-Colby a perfect 10-0 record in league play.
“That was a pretty good game,” Iverson said. “The last three runs were all unearned. It was 4-2, anybody’s game and they came up with some big hits. Again, we had chances to score and we left guys on. They made some big pitches in key situations. They put the ball in play and we threw away two ground balls. We’ve been playing pretty good defense all year. I can’t complain about our defense this year. We happened to make two errors on balls that we’ve been making plays on all year and that cost us three runs. But those three runs didn’t hurt us anyway.”
Seth Borchardt set up Blomberg’s big third-inning hit by drawing a one-out walk, and he went to third on two wild pitches. Scheithauer was hit by a pitch. Wild pitches got the runners in scoring position and Blomberg got the single on a 1-2 pitch. He stole second and Michael Borchardt walked, but Diedrich ended the rally there by getting a comebacker from Cook.
Abbotsford-Colby turned four hits, a hit batter and a walk into four runs in its big rally. Diedrich, Carlos Lara and Noah Schraufnagel had RBI singles and Jaxon Polivka added a sacrifice fly. The hosts got one unearned run in the fifth and two in the sixth.
Michael Borchardt was two for two. Blomberg and Quednow each had a hit. Blomberg went 4.2 innings, allowing six hits and five runs, four of which were earned. He walked six, hit one and struck out three. Scheithauer allowed two hits and two unearned runs in an inning and Wudi got the last out.
