RIB LAKE SOFTBALL - Redmen shake off rust, beat Loggers to get closer to title
RIB LAKE SOFTBALL
The Rib Lake softball team has had a tough time getting games in due to this spring’s fickle weather and the loss of a conference team, but they’ve gotten in enough contests to already be in position to clinch this year’s Marawood North championship.
An 8-3 home win over Phillips Monday improved Rib Lake’s record to 3-0 in the shrunken North this year with three games to play. The Redmen would clinch the North title outright by winning in the return trip to Phillips today, Thursday. Athens and Chequamegon both already have three losses in league play after Athens’ 9-4 win over the Screaming Eagles Tuesday.
Monday’s win marked Rib Lake’s first contest in 10 days as the Redmen improved to 7-1 overall.
Rib Lake scored two runs in four straight innings, the third through sixth, to reverse an early 1-0 Phillips lead. The Redmen had just five hits against Logger pitchers Annaka Tobias and Trinity Smith, but they drew nine walks and got three of those hits from junior catcher Avery Niemi, including two doubles. She finished three for three with two runs batted in.
“We were clearly a little rusty, more so at the plate,” Rib Lake head coach Craig Scheithauer said. “Avery wasn’t. She put on a hitting clinic. We needed some of those hits. We didn’t hit like we were capable of.”
Phillips’ first-inning run was unearned. Kara Kennedy drew a leadoff walk in the bottom of the third and that got Rib Lake’s go-ahead rally started. With two outs and Kennedy on second base, Niemi ripped a game-tying double. After an intentional walk to Tessa Weik and another walk to Madilyn Blomberg loaded the bases, Kiana Dallmann drew the second of her four walks to drive in the second run of the inning.
In the fourth, Ava Dallmann drew a leadoff walk and Addison Gumz bunted for a one-out hit. Niemi came up two outs and delivered another hard-hit double to drive in Dallmann and Gumz scored on a passed ball to make it 4-1.
Mataya Eckert singled, stole second and scored for Phillips in the top of the fifth on a Smith single. The Loggers stranded two runners in the inning. Rib Lake came back with two runs in the bottom half. Kiana Dallmann drew a leadoff walk and stole second. Madelyn Dallmann followed with a high, deep drive to left that Logger Macy Hertlein couldn’t quite come down with, making it an RBI double. Ava Dallmann’s groundout to third drove in Madelyn Dallmann with the second run of the inning.
The Loggers got their second unearned run of the game in the top of the sixth, but Rib Lake put it away in its half. Niemi lined a one-out single to center, then three straight walks to Weik, Blomberg and Dallmann forced in a run. Madelyn Dallmann drove in Weik with a ground ball.
Weik got the win, pitching all seven innings. She allowed six hits and four walks while striking out seven.
“Tess did all right,” Scheithauer said. “She was a little wild once in a while and we didn’t help her on a couple of plays either. It was good to just play again.”
Offensively, Scheithauer expects his club to get back into the swing of things as the schedule should pick up dramatically in the next couple of weeks. Before today’s trip to Phillips, Rib Lake picked up a Wednesday home game with Tomahawk.
On Friday, the Redmen the will host Flambeau in non-conference play at 4:45 p.m. and next week, Rib Lake will close out North play against Chequamegon, hosting the Screaming Eagles at 4:45 p.m. on Tuesday and then going to Park Falls on May 15. Rib Lake is at Stratford May 16. “We can hit with anybody,” he said. “I think tonight we were just a little rusty. There are some hitting drills you can do, but you have to see some live pitching and game action and respond.”
