A/C defeats Osceola in second round contest
By Nathaniel Underwood
The third-seeded Abbotsford/Colby baseball team advanced to the third round of the WIAA D2 playoffs after defeating Osceola in their first postseason game of 2024. The squad finished their regular season with a 19-7 record after recording wins over Spooner and Rib Lake in a double-header last Thursday.
Osceola, 4-1
Blake Bargender hit a go-ahead RBI triple in the fifth inning, Evan Reis, Payton Schreiber and JV Castillo combined to throw seven innings of one-run ball and the third-seeded Abby/Colby baseball team advanced to the regional finals with a 4-1 win over 11-seed Osceola on Tuesday evening.
Bargender’s hit came at the perfect time for the co-op, sparking an offense that Osceola pitcher Carson Cole had held in check after the first inning. The Chieftains had just managed to knot up the game in the top of the fifth, using small ball tactics to eke out a run against the Abby/Colby defense and the co-op needed a response. After an error allowed JV Castillo to reach base, Bargender provided that retort, smacking a 1-0 pitch to the center field wall. Castillo scored with ease and the Abby/Colby catcher slid into third to the raucous cheers of the nearby dugout.
Schreiber followed with a monster hit of his own, launching another ball to the wall for an RBI double and Carlos Lara added a third insurance run by driving in Schreiber on a full-count single.
The offensive rally was an outlier in what was pitchers’ duel between Osceola’s Cole and the Abby/Colby trio for much of the evening. The four pitchers combined to hurl 17 strikeouts and peppered the zone, only allowing three walks and throwing two-thirds of their pitches for strikes.
Rainstorms earlier in the day caused the game to be moved to a neutral site in Augusta, as Red Arrow Park was deemed too wet to play on.
Castillo started the game off with a bang, hitting a triple in Abby/Colby’s first at-bat and Schreiber was able to come through with a line-drive single to right to put the co-op up 1-0 after just three plate appearances. Osceola absorbed the opening blow and stepped up their defense, allowing just one hit over the next three innings.
Reis had a bend-but-don’t-break outing on the mound. As the co-op’s starter, the senior struck out four batters over his three-and-two-thirds innings and while Osceola managed to get baserunners in scoring position in three of the four innings, Reis and his defense importantly kept them off the scoreboard.
Schreiber was summoned to the mound to relieve Reis in the fourth and went two-and-a-third innings for Abby/Colby, picking up the win in the process. While he only surrendered one hit and no walks while striking out four batters over that span, an error in the fifth would allow the game tying run to score. With a run in and a man on second with no outs, Schreiber locked in, inducing a groundout before striking out the final two batters of the inning to keep the damage to a minimum.
Castillo closed out the game for the coop, tossing a scoreless seventh and earning the save.
Abby/Colby’s normally potent lineup was held to six hits, but came through with big extra base hits when they needed them. Schreiber accounted for half of those hits, going a perfect 3-for-3 at the plate and coming through with two clutch RBIs.
Spooner, 13-4
Blake Bargender collected four hits and drove in four runs, Carlos Lara hit a home run and the co-op was able to defeat the Spooner Rails 13-4 in the first game of a double-header last Thursday evening.
The Abby/Colby bats had 14 hits in the contest and it was the top of their line up that did much of the damage. The first two batters in the lineup, JV Castillo and Bargender, were a perfect 7-for-7 at the plate and combined to score eight of the team’s 13 runs.
A single and a double from Castillo and Bargender set up the co-op with runners on second and third with no outs in the bottom of the first. Castillo was able to score on a sacrifice fly by Payton Schreiber and then Lara knocked in both himself and Bargender with a first inning bomb, giving Abby/Colby a 3-0 advantage.
Spooner responded with a three-run inning of their own in the top of the second. Pitcher Jackson Lucius helped his own cause with a two-out double with the bases loaded, driving in the Rails first two runs of the contest. A bases loaded walk tied the game up before Abby/Colby was able to get out of the inning.
The co-op’s lineup continued to roll in the bottom half of the frame as Bargender’s second hit of the day broke the tie, driving in two runs on an RBI single. With Castillo and Bargender once again standing on second and third, Evan Reis hit a single to right field to plate both, extend-
See PLAYOFF WIN/ Page 24
BIG PLAYOFF WIN - JV Castillo and Blake Bargender celebrate after the game-sealing out at the plate in the co-op’s playoff win over Osceola. Castillo’s triple in the first helped Abby/Colby take an early lead while Bargender’s triple in the fifth put their team ahead for good. STAFF PHOTO/NATHANIEL UNDERWOOD Playoff win
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ing Abby/Colby’s newly regained lead out to four.
After exchanging runs in the bottom of third and the top of the fourth, the combination of Castillo, Bargender and Reis once again resulted in more runs for the co-op in their half of the fourth. Three combined stolen bases from Castillo and Bargender in the inning were able to get them into scoring position and resulted in the co-op adding two more runs to take a 10-4 lead.
The Abby/Colby defense shut out the Rails over the final three innings. Coming in as a relief pitcher, Castillo struck out over half of the batters he faced during his time on the mound, holding Spooner to just two hits while striking out seven batters. Three insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth all but sealed the victory forAbby/Colby.
Reis started the day on the mound for the co-op and earned himself the win, pitching four innings. He surrendered four runs on seven hits and three walks while striking out five.
Reis and Koren Decker both went 2-for-3 at the plate, the former driving in four runs while the latter scored twice. Lara reached base twice, drawing a walk on top of his tworun home run in the first.
Rib Lake, 11-1
Payton Schreiber hit a home run and had six RBIs, JV Castillo and Schreiber held the opposing lineup to just two hits over five innings and Abby/Colby crushed Rib Lake 11-1 in a rubber match between the co-Marawood- North champions in the second game of their Thursday night double-header.
With the score knotted 1-1 in the bottom of the third and runners at second and third, Schreiber got a hold of Dominique Quednow’s 1-0 pitch, launching it over the fence and clearing the bases to give his team the lead. The home run was Schreiber’s fifth of the season.
Abby/Colby added three more runs in the fourth, doing all of their damage with two outs. It was Schreiber who came up with another clutch hit for the co-op, knocking in Preston Bunkelman and Castillo with a bases loaded single. Two at bats later, the bases were once again full for Carlos Lara, who waited out a walk to make the score 7-1.
The offense continued to pour it on in the fifth as Castillo and Reis both came up with RBI knocks. Reis’s double was the nail in the coffin, extending Abby/Colby’s lead out to ten and ending the game early.
Castillo picked up the win, allowing just one run on two hits and two walks. The senior also struck out five batters. Schreiber came into the game in a relief outing and threw the final two innings, striking out four of the seven batters he faced and not allowing a baserunner.
Bargender and Castillo continued their perfect night that they started in the Spooner game by once again reaching base safely in all eight of their combined plate appearances against Rib Lake. Both were 2-for-2 with two walks and an RBI, with Castillo scoring four times and Bargender reaching home twice. Between the two Thursday night games, the duo at the top of the Abby/Colby lineup went 11-for-11 with five walks, 14 runs scored and six RBIs.
Schreiber was also a perfect 2-for-2, Reis went 1-for-3 with a double and AJ Brodhagen was 1-for-3 with a run scored.
Abby/Colby ended their regular season on a seven-game winning streak, scoring nine or more runs in each of those victories.
The co-op will face off against the seventh- seeded Merrill squad at home on Wednesday afternoon after the Bluejays pulled off a 5-1 upset over second-seed Hayward on Tuesday. If Abby/Colby can pull off a win, they will move on to play in the sectional semi-final in Baldwin-Woodville on Tuesday, June 4.
SEE YOU LATER, BALL - Payton Schreiber launches a pitch that just stayed in the park during Tuesday night’s playoff game in Augusta. The junior’s double drove in an important third run for the co-op and put him on base to score later on a single by Carlos Lara.
STAFF PHOTO/NATHANIEL UNDERWOOD
