WBA B DIVISION FINALS - Eventual state finalists eliminate Rib Lake and Interwald

The damage against Rib Lake was done early, while the damage against Interwald was done late. Either way, scoring zero runs wasn’t going to get it done for either local team this past weekend at the Wisconsin Baseball Association’s B Division state tournament in Augusta.

Both teams were eliminated in the quarterfinal round by eventual finalists. On Friday night, Rib Lake was shut out 110 in seven innings by the eventual champion Whitehall Whitetails, who beat Osceola in Sunday’s championship game 3-2 on Connor Weltzien’s 11th-inning walk-off home run. Osceola shut out Interwald 6-0 Saturday afternoon in a game started four and a half hours after its originally scheduled time due to heavy morning rain.

Of the three Dairyland League teams in the eight-team tournament, the Abbotsford Merchants were the one team that advanced to the semifinals. Playing as the sixth seed, Abbotsford outscored third-seeded Ellsworth 11-7 on Friday night before falling 7-1 to Whitehall in a semifinal Sunday morning.

Whitehall 11, Rib Lake 0

The seventh-seeded Rib Lake Osprey put some early pressure on Whitehall Friday, stranding two runners in the top of the first and one in the second. But the second-seeded Whitetails put Rib Lake in a big hole with a six-run rally in the bottom of the second. They added three more runs in the third to lead 9-0 and coasted from there.

Rib Lake finished with just two hits against Whitehall’s Tyler Webb, who struck out 12 and walked two. Steve Mann had a first-inning single and Austin Ewan singled in the fifth.

Jake Bjerke started Whitehall’s big second inning by getting hit by an Austin Edwards pitch. Braydon Lisowski singled and Chris Killian bunted for a hit to load the bases. Brock Sluga singled in Bjerke. After Edwards struck out Kyle Steien for the first out, an error on a ball hit by Brandon Sylla scored a run. Leadoff hitter Devon McCune doubled in two runs. After Webb walked, a double by Alex Sartor allowed two more runs to score.

Killian led off the bottom of the third with a double and scored on Sluga’s single, ending Edwards’ time on the pitching mound after two-plus innings. Bryant Konieczny took over and got a strikeout, but Sylla’s triple scored Sluga and Sylla scored on a wild pitch.

Killian singled in a run in the fourth and Whitehall added an unearned run in the fifth.

Edwards struck out one, walked one and hit one while allowing six hits and eight runs. Koniecnzy allowed six hits and three runs, one earned. He struck out eight hitters in his four innings.

Rib Lake finished the summer 8-2, including a 6-1 mark in the Dairyland League’s Small Division.

Osceola 6, Interwald 0

Interwald’s Jackson Blomberg and Osceola’s Nick Carlson took shutouts into the seventh inning Saturday, but the defending B Division champions finally pushed one run across in the bottom of the seventh and then put up the big crooked number, five runs, in the eighth to seal their 6-0 win over the fifth-seeded Woodticks.

A three-run homer by Michael Meadows was the big hit in the eighth that sent Osceola to a Sunday semifinal against top-seeded Elmwood, their league rival in the St. Croix Valley, in a rematch of last year’s state title game. Fourth-seeded Osceola won Sunday’s game 9-6 to advance to the final with Whitehall. Blomberg struck out four, walked three and allowed just five hits, only one of which came in the first six innings. He was charged with four runs. The left-handed Carlson was tough on Woodtick hitters, striking out 12 and walking two. Interwald got six hits off him. Osceola left the bases loaded in the bottom of the first and Meadows hit a leadoff double in the fourth that didn’t amount to anything. Interwald never had more than one runner on base, nor did a runner ever get past first base until the ninth when Matt Mohr, who was three for three with a walk, singled and got to third on two groundouts. Logan Blomberg drew a two-out walk to put runners on the corners, but they went no further.

Osceola’s Andrew Harris led off the bottom of the seventh with a single. Interwald had him picked off, but he was able to beat a throw to second for the steal. Dylan Cotch then bunted Harris to third and Harris scored on a base hit by Aaron Schmidt.

The eighth-inning rally started with a single from Tyler Olson. Carlson walked. Will Jensen singled in Olson. The Woodticks went to Peter Devine at that point and he was greeted by the Meadows home run that suddenly made it 5-0. A walk, a sacrifice and a long single by Charlie Tronrud brought in the final run.

Along with Mohr’s three hits, David Fliehs was two for four for Interwald and Dalton Strebig added an infield hit. Meadows had two of Osceola’s seven hits.

The loss was Interwald’s first of the season after nine league and playoff wins.

A Division

In the A Division tournament at Hayward, the top-seeded River Falls Fighting Fish survived two close games on Sunday to successfully defend their 2024 title.

In the semifinals, River Falls outlasted the Eau Claire Bears 6-5 in 13 innings. They fought off Osseo 8-7 to take the championship game.

The Dairyland League was represented by the Rapids Redhawks and Everest Merchants. Rapids, the three-seed, beat sixth-seeded Spring Valley 6-2 in a quarterfinal game Friday night, but then lost 7-6 to seventh-seeded Osseo in a semifinal Sunday morning.

Everest, the fifth seed, lost to fourthseeded Eau Claire 4-0 on Saturday afternoon.