GILMAN BASEBALL - Pirates shut down by Loyal for first league loss, get a nine-inning win

GILMAN BASEBALL

Pitching ruled in Tuesday’s battle of Eastern Cloverbelt baseball unbeatens with Loyal’s pitchers proving to be a little bit better in a 5-0 win over visiting Gilman.

Gilman, Loyal and Neillsville-Granton all entered Tuesday without a loss in league play. Loyal stayed unbeaten at 3-0 in the conference and 6-0 overall with its win, while Neillsville-Granton went to Marshfield and got a big 6-2 win over Columbus Catholic to go to 5-0, 6-3.

Gilman fell to 3-1 in the conference and 7-3 overall as it looked forward to an immediate rematch with the Greyhounds today, Thursday, in Gilman. Likewise, Neillsville-Granton hosts Columbus Catholic (2-2, 8-3) today.

The Pirates mustered just two hits in Tuesday’s loss, singles by Trevin Duellman in the third inning and Talyn Podolak in the fourth. Rhett Lamovec struck out nine Pirates in four innings of work. He walked two, both of which came with two outs in the first inning. He got a strikeout to end that threat and wasn’t really tested after that.

Andrew Petkovsek covered the last three innings for Loyal and struck out three while walking one.

Dawson Grunseth got the start for Gilman and struck out seven hitters in 4.2 innings. He only allowed three hits but walked five and Loyal took advantage getting four earned runs off Gilman’s junior lefty.

Gilman was an out away from escaping a two-on, two-out threat in the second, but Loyal’s Ridge Ashbeck’s single scored the first run of the game. In the fourth, Tryn Scheel was hit by a pitch and scored on Hunter Walter’s double.

A two-run fifth made it 4-0. Again, Gilman was an out away from getting out of the jam, but with two in scoring position, Walter came through with a base hit to knock in both runners. Colten Sandelier’s bases-loaded walk scored the last run in the sixth.

Max Pockat got the last four outs for Gilman. He struck out two, walked four and allowed a run and two hits.

Walter had three of Loyal’s five hits and drove in three of the five runs.

Neither team committed an error in the contest.

After today’s rematch with Loyal, Gilman is scheduled to visit Cadott for non-conference play on Friday at 5 p.m. The Pirates will host Greenwood at 5 p.m. Monday in a rescheduled Eastern Cloverbelt matchup and then get their two games in with Columbus Catholic. Gilman hosts the Dons Tuesday and goes to Marshfield May 8. Both of those games have 4:30 p.m. starts.

Gilman 6, Spencer 5

On Thursday, Gilman won an extra-inning thriller on Grunseth’s ninth-inning single that capped a come-from-behind 65 walk-off win over the Spencer Rockets.

The Pirates never led until the final play of the game, rallying to tie the game at 5-5 in the bottom of the seventh before winning in on Grunseth’s bases-loaded one-out infield hit to the left side. Spencer stranded one runner in the top of the eighth and two in the top of the ninth.

Gilman got a one-out double from Lucas Halida to put the ninth-inning rally in motion. He advanced to third on a passed ball. For the second time in three innings, Spencer went with the strategy of intentionally walking the bases loaded to create infield forceouts all around. Beau Pockat and Connor Nichols took the walks, then Grunseth put the ball in play and drove in Halida.

The two-run rally in the seventh started with hits from the eighth and ninth hitters in the order, Max Pockat and Duellman. With runners on the corners, Duellman stole second. Pockat scored on a passed ball and Halida’s hit scored Duellman with the tying run.

The Pirates had a chance to win the game at that point as Halida stole second and third base. With one out, Spencer intentionally walked Nichols and Grunseth to load the bases and it worked out for the Rockets when Halida got picked off third and Rocket reliever Dalton Post got Podolak to ground out.

Two days after Gilman won in Spencer 6-3, the Rockets’ quest for revenge got off to a good start with two runs in the top of the third. Duellman singled and eventually scored on a passed ball in the bottom half to make it 2-1 and Tate Krizan’s RBI groundout tied it in the fourth.

Spencer got its lead back at 4-2 in the top of the fifth on a two-run single by Kayden Dietsche. Duellman doubled and scored on a passed ball in the bottom half. Spencer tacked on its last run in the seventh on a two-out error by the Pirates.

Dawson Robinson gave Gilman a quality start, going 6.1 innings. He scattered nine hits and walked two, but Spencer only turned that into four runs, three of which were earned. He struck out four. Max Pockat covered the last 2.2 innings and got the relief win. He struck out three, walked two and allowed two hits and the unearned run in the seventh.

Duellman was three for four and scored three times out of the nine spot. Halida was three for four out of the leadoff spot as they accounted for six of Gilman’s eight hits.

The regular-season sweep of Spencer was Gilman’s first in Eastern Cloverbelt Conference play since 2011.