safely for Abby-Colby in the ….
safely for Abby-Colby in the bottom of the fourth inning as they batted around the order to stretch out their lead over Chequamegon. The sudden offensive production drastically contrasted with what the co-op’s lineup had managed in the first three innings. Before the explosion of runs in the fourth for the co-op, this Marwood-North matchup was positioning itself as a pitchers’ duel between Abby-Colby’s JV Castillo and the Screaming Eagles’ Dalton Schmidt. Castillo gave up just one hit while striking out nine batters over the first four innings. Meanwhile, Schmidt did not surrender a single hit over his first three innings of work.
Abby-Colby still managed to push across a run in the second, despite lacking a hit. Blake Bargender drew a walk to start off the inning and courtesy runner Jackson Snapp did the rest, stealing two bases and then scoring on an overthrow by Chequamegon.
It looked to be likely more of the same heading into the bottom of the fourth, as Schmidt notched the first out of the inning with a strikeout. But the game was about to shift dramatically in favor of the home team.
Shortstop Mateo Lopez finally got his team in the hit column with a double to deep left center, a connection that would spark Abby-Colby’s offense. A single up the middle from Noah Schraufnagel brought in two runners to get the co-op on the board in the fourth and extra base hits from Castillo, Evan Reis, and Brandon Diedrich chased Schmidt from the mound. Lopez would drive in two runners in with an RBI single his second at-bat of the inning and the Abby-Colby club came out of the inning with a dominant 9-0 lead.
While the Screaming Eagles would battle back in the top of the fifth, getting three runs off of a combination of Castillo and Lopez, that would be all the offense the visitors would be able to muster as Lopez and the Abby-Colby defense would silence Chequamegon’s bats in the sixth. Reis would finish things off in the bottom of the inning, hitting a two RBI single with bases loaded to put the co-op up by ten and ending the game early.
Castillo earned the win, finishing the game with four innings pitched, giving up two runs on two hits, two walks and striking out nine. Lopez pitched two innings, striking out three while walking one and giving up one hit. He had one earned run charged to his name.
Lopez led the way from the plate, going 3-4 while scoring two runs and batting in two. Castillo, Reis and Diedrich each had two hits and Bargender, Schraufnagel and Jaxon Polivka had one apiece. The co-op showed off their speed on the bases, with Castillo snagging five stolen bases, Snapp adding three of his own and Lopez swiping a pair.
