DAIRYLAND LEAGUE BASEBALL - Rib Lake escapes upset bid; Reds take two and Interwald rolls

Behind impressive outings by both teams’ starting pitchers Saturday night, the Rib Lake Osprey and Medford Moon Dogs took a 2-2 tie into the ninth inning of their Dairyland League Small Division matchup where the visiting Osprey finally broke through with a five-run rally to earn a 7-2 win. Brett Paul drove Medford’s upset bid against the defending division champions as he fought through the heat and a high pitch count to get through eight innings. Medford had a 2-1 lead in the eighth, but a two-out error on a ball hit by pinch-hitter Jon Dallmann brought in Joe Frombach, who led off the inning with an error. The Osprey then did their damage against Medford’s bullpen in the ninth. Luke Blomberg drove in the go-ahead run with a one-out, bases-loaded single to right. Scott Hueckman’s walk drove in the second run of the inning. An errant pickoff throw scored the third run, Andrew Mann’s groundout scored the fourth run and Hueckman crossed the plate as Levi Ewan ran himself away from a pickle between first and second. Rib Lake’s Austin Edwards won the pitcher’s duel with a big-time outing of his own. The left-hander struck out 16 Moon Dogs in eight innings. He allowed eight hits but only issued two walks and hit a batter. Edwards also drove in the first run of the game. Austin Ewan walked with one out in the third, stole second and scored on an Edwards single in the top of the third inning. Medford did its damage in the fifth without getting a ball out of the infield. Peyton Gilles reached on a one-out error and moved to second on a wild pitch. A single by Gavin Fuchs put runners on the corners and Josh Turner’s infield single tied the tied. Trent Klemm hit another infield single to load the bases. Edwards gave Rib Lake a shot to escape the inning still tied by striking out Paul, but Roy Stinson walked to put Medford in the lead. Rib Lake loaded the bases in the seventh on two walks and an error with two outs in the seventh, but the Moon Dogs escaped when Stinson, playing shortstop, gloved a hard-hit ground ball hit by Bryant Konieczny and made the long throw to first baseman Jacob Matyka to get the out. Konieczny closed out the game by pitching a scoreless ninth for Rib Lake, walking two and striking out three. Paul struck out six, walked six and allowed just five hits in his no-decision. Edwards was two for four for Rib Lake, who improved to 2-0 in league play and sits in an early first-place tie with Tony. Klemm had two of Medford’s eight hits. The Moon Dogs fell to 1-1 in league play. Rib Lake is off this weekend before hosting Interwald in the annual July 3 pre-fireworks game at 6 p.m. Medford is at Tomahawk (0-2) Saturday for a 6 p.m. first pitch. Interwald 17, Spirit 1 The Interwald Woodticks finally got their first Small Division game completed this season, rolling past visiting Spirit 17-1 in seven innings. Interwald jumped ahead with three runs on four hits in the bottom of the first and then broke it open with a six-run second with Jackson Blomberg’s double being the key hit. Five walks led to a fiverun third and Dalton Strebig’s triple was the key hit in a three-run fourth. Strebig had three hits and Carter Scheithauer had two for Interwald. Spirit had just two hits while falling to 0-2 in league play. The Twins host Tony Sunday at 1:30 p.m. Whittlesey takes two In the Dairyland’s Large Division, the Whittlesey Reds swept a Sunday doubleheader with visiting Minocqua 4-2 and 6-0 to improve to 4-1 in league play. The Reds sit in second place in the division, a half-game behind 4-0 Wisconsin Rapids, whose game at Marshfield Monday was postponed due to stormy weather. Minocqua led the first seven-inning game Sunday 1-0 until the bottom of the fifth inning. Jeff Kraschnewski and Cody Loertscher singled off Wood Duck starter Landyn Hoeft. A throwing error on a sacrifice bunt by Nick Meyer scored the tying run and Parker Lissner’s sacrifice fly drove in the goahead run. The Reds tacked on two key runs in the sixth. Ryder Kraschnewski hit a one-out infield single, stole second, moved to third on Loertscher’s groundout and scored on Meyer’s double. Lissner then singled off reliever Austin Semanske to drive in Meyer. Minocqua threatened in the seventh, getting leadoff singles from Semanske and Brody Hoeft, but the Reds got out of it with the final outs coming on two nice catches from Restyn Kraschnewski in rightfield, the first of which went for a sacrifice fly. Nick Retterath got the win, allowing two earned runs on just five hits. He struck out seven and walked one. Meyer, Lissner and Jeff Kraschnewski had two hits each. Whittlesey turned four hits into the two runs in the top of the first inning in game two. Logan Baumgartner’s infield hit and Darren Leonhard’s groundout drove in the runs. A three-run second made it 5-0 and gave Baumgartner plenty of cushion to work with as he threw five shutout innings, striking out six, walking two and allowing two hits. Lissner hit an RBI double and Spike Alexander hit a two-run single in the three-run rally. Brigham Kelley added a fifth-inning sacrifice fly. Brent Mueller and Restyn Kraschnewski each threw a scoreless inning. Alexander was three for four, while Meyer and Lissner had two hits each. Whittlesey plays two against Abbotsford this weekend in league play. The Reds are at Abbotsford Friday for a 7 p.m. first pitch. The teams will meet again in Whittlesey Sunday at 1:30 p.m.