Rib Lake’s spring comes to surprising end in loss to Hilltoppers
WIAA DIV. 4 BASEBALL
Holding the second seed in the WIAA Division 4 sectional half-bracket and knowing its first two games would be at home, the Rib Lake baseball team appeared poised to at least make a run into next week’s sectional tournament.
But Tuesday proved once again nothing is guaranteed at tournament time.
The momentum Rib Lake’s young team seemed to be building vanished in an avalanche of walks and a handful of untimely errors that allowed seventhseeded Glenwood City to knock out the Redmen 12-4 in a regional semifinal.
The Redmen outhit the Hilltoppers 9-7, but left some runners on base in crucial times early in the game and just didn’t make the necessary plays defensively in key situations from the middle innings on.
“We talked about it and said it was going to come down to our pitching and defense because our hitting has been doing very well the last few games,” Rib Lake head coach Dick Iverson said. “We’ve really been hitting the ball fine as far as strikeouts go. We only struck out four times, which isn’t bad. That’s pretty good. We put the ball in play. They made the plays most of the time. We just gave them too many free passes. That was the game. Too many free passes. You can’t give up 19 free runners and expect to win.”
The 19 free runners came on 12 walks, two hit batters and five errors.
Rib Lake actually led 3-0 after the second inning and could’ve been up by more. The Redmen got their first two hitters on in the bottom of the first and eventually loaded the bases, but three pop-ups didn’t put pressure on Glenwood City’s defense.
In the bottom of the second, Brady Heiser walked and Seth Borchardt got hit by a pitch. With one down, Talon Scheithauer got a hit, but Heiser was thrown out trying to score. An error by the Hilltoppers allowed two runs to score and a base knock by Jackson Blomberg drove in the third run of the inning.
The lead didn’t last long. Walks loaded the bases for Glenwood City in the top of the third and a hit compounded by an outfield error allowed all three runners to score and tie the game.
In the fifth, a walk, a hit and another walk loaded the bases. A Hilltopper hitter missed the bunt attempt on a suicide squeeze, putting the runner from third base in a rundown, but an errant throw allowed two runs to score. Another run scored on a throwing error on what could have been a double play, making it 6-3.
The Redmen had a great opportunity to do some damage in their half of the fifth. Ethan Cook singled, Dominic Quednow doubled and Heiser walked to load the bases. Seth Borchardt’s grounder scored Cook, but the other two runners were stranded, leaving it a 6-4 game.
“We had our scoring opportunities,” Iverson said.
Two more errors combined with two base hits and a hit batter led to three Glenwood City runs in the sixth. The Hilltoppers got three earned runs in the seventh to put it away, getting a single, a sacrifice bunt, two walks, a sacrifice fly and a two-run single.
While Rib Lake’s season ended at 108, Glenwood City improved to 10-8 with its fifth straight win and earned a date at sixth-seeded McDonell Central (6-10) in Wednesday’s regional final. The Macks beat third-seeded Owen-Withee 8-4 in the other regional semifinal Tuesday.
Rib Lake loses two senior starters in Michael Borchardt and Dalen Gebauer. Borchardt was an unanimous first-team All-Marawood North selection by the league’s coaches last week. The rest of the team should be back and will hopefully be in position to allow Rib Lake to do some damage in the Marawood North and in the post-season “We were hoping to get into the sec-tional and see what happened, but you have to play well to do that,” Iverson said. “When you get to the tournament everybody is 0-0. Everybody starts over. It doesn’t matter what your record is.”
Rib Lake 10, Blackhawks 0
In the regular-season finale on Thursday, Rib Lake outhit Owen-Withee 8-1 and put up three crooked numbers to quickly take care of the visiting Blackhawks 10-0 in a preview for Wednesday’s regional final.
Scheithauer pitched the first four innings for Rib Lake. He struck out seven, walked one and gave up the lone hit. Seth Borchardt struck out two in a scoreless fifth.
“It was nice getting a couple of freshmen some innings in there,” Iverson said. “Seth pitched well at Marathon (May 23) and against Owen. Talon threw strikes. We’re starting to eliminate the walks. With our pitching that’s kinda what did us in most of the year. We’re definitely hitting the ball a lot better. I’ve been very pleased with the hitting the last five or six games. It’s been solid. The pitching is getting better.”
Rib Lake jumped ahead 2-0 in the bottom of the first and it all started with two outs and no runners on. Blomberg and Michael Borchardt both got hits and Cook knocked both of them in with a single. The inning ended when Quednow hit a long fly ball to left that was caught.
In the second, Heiser led off by reaching second base when his fly ball to leftfield was dropped. Seth Borchardt hit a double to right-center to knock in Heiser. He eventually scored on a Scheithauer sacrifice fly. Andrew Wudi had a single and scored on Blomberg’s two-run homer to right-center that made it 6-0.
Rib Lake put it away in the bottom of the fourth. Seth Borchardt off with a hit, which was followed by an Owen-Withee error. Blomberg was hit by a pitch, Michael Borchardt knocked in two with a single, Quednow hit a sacrifice fly and Rib Lake scored the last run on an error.
Blomberg was two for two with a home run and two runs batted in. Michael Borchardt was two for three with two RBIs. Cook one for two with two RBIs, and Seth Borchardt was two for two with a double and an RBI.
Marathon 7, Rib Lake 0
On May 23, Rib Lake outhit host Marathon 6-4, but the Redmen couldn’t overcome six errors and were shut out by the Red Raiders 7-0.
Marathon scored five times in the bottom of the second inning on one hit, two walks and four errors. Marathon tacked on two more in the fourth on one hit and two errors.
Rib Lake had scoring opportunities in the second, fourth and seventh innings but couldn’t cash in. Marathon got an out at home plate in the second and stranded two Rib Lake runners in scoring position. A leadoff double went for naught in the fourth and the Redmen had two on with one out in the seventh.
Blomberg pitched the first five innings. He struck out three, walked four and gave up four hits. Seth Borchardt set down Marathon’s second, third and fourth hitters in order in the sixth.
Quednow had two hits for Rib Lake, Michael Borchardt doubled and Blomberg, Cook and Heiser added singles.
“It easily could have been a one-run game,” Iverson said. “Too many errors in that game and some were from guys that usually don’t have errors. It was just one of those games.”
Rib Lake 5, Newman 1
Rib Lake scored twice in each of the first two innings and rode a solid pitching outing from Michael Borchardt after that to a 5-1 home win over Newman Catholic on May 22.
Borchardt was one out away from a complete game when his pitch count reached 100. He struck out nine, didn’t walk a batter and scattered seven hits. Newman’s first-inning run was unearned. Scheithauer got the last out.
Borchardt also had one of the game’s biggest hits, a two-run double in the bottom of the first that scored Andrew Wudi, who had singled, and Jackson Blomberg, who had walked.
“Michael pitched great,” Iverson said. “He didn’t walk anybody. That was more like the Michael of old. So that was good news for us.”
Rib Lake extended its lead to 4-1 in the second. Heiser walked, but was forced out at second on Seth Borchardt’s fielder’s choice. Scheithauer tripled in Borchardt and scored on another base hit by Wudi. In the fifth, Cook was hit by a pitch and eventually scored on a two-single by Gebauer.
Michael Borchardt and Wudi each went two for four, Scheithauer was one for three with his triple and Quednow, Heiser and Gebauer had one hit apiece.
Rib Lake nearly had another victory on May 18. In a last-minute addition to the schedule after Washburn canceled a plan trip to Rib Lake due to concerns about the rainy forecast, the Redmen went to Phillips to play a non-conference game with the Loggers and led 13-4 in the top of the fifth inning when a downpour shut down the game before it became official.
“We were three outs away from another win, which was too bad because the guys played really well in that game,” Iverson said.
Talon Scheithauer
