RIB LAKE SOFTBALL - REDMEN AIM TO CLOSE THE DEAL
RIB LAKE SOFTBALL
Small conference or not, when your program hasn’t won a conference championship since 1996, you’re going to take your shot to do so seriously.
That’s where the Rib Lake softball team sits going into its Marawood North finale at Chequamegon today, Thursday. A 9-5 home win Tuesday over the Screaming Eagles clinched at least a title share as Rib Lake improved to 4-1 in the four-team North Division.
A win in today’s rematch would eliminate 4-2 Phillips and give the Redmen the outright title.
“I told the girls after the game I’m happy with where we’re at, but I’m not satisfied,” head coach Craig Scheithauer said Tuesday night. “It’s been our focus and I think we’re plenty capable of winning the conference outright, so let’s go do that.”
Back to playing games on a regular basis after a slow stretch at the end of April, Rib Lake’s offense is showing signs of getting back into the swing of things. On Tuesday, the Redmen knocked around Chequamegon pitching for 15 hits with each starter getting at least one hit. Rib Lake got out to a 9-2 lead through five innings that the Eagles could not come back from.
Kiana Dallmann threw a complete game for Rib Lake, striking out five, walking four and allowing two earned runs on 10 hits.
The Redmen got two runs quickly in the first. Addison Gumz walked and scored on Tahlia Scheithauer’s hit to right-center. Avery Niemi walked and Tessa Weik drove in Scheithauer with a hit.
A three-run third made it 5-0. Niemi, Weik, Madi Blomberg all singled and Kiana Dallmann drove in Niemi and Weik with a two-run single. Madelyn Blomberg singled to re-load the bases. After an out at home plate, Kara Kennedy’s hit scored the third run of the inning.
A homer and RBI single got the Screaming Eagles on the board in the top of the fourth. Tahlia Scheithauer’s RBI single got one back in the fourth. The damage in the fifth was done with two outs. Kennedy doubled to deep centerfield, then outfield errors on balls hit by Gumz and Scheithauer led to Niemi’s two-run single.
Chequamegon got three unearned runs in the sixth and left two runners stranded in the seventh as it fell to 1-4 in the North and 8-9 overall.
Niemi was two for three with two runs batted in. Weik was two for three. Scheithauer, Blomberg, Madelyn Dallmann and Kennedy were all two for four.
“It was a good win and now we have the chance to win the North outright,” Craig Scheithauer said. “Even though it’s just a four-team North, we’re happy to have that chance Thursday. I’m hoping now we’ll play a little looser. We’ve seen the two pitchers that have thrown the majority of their innings. They’ve only seen Kiana. Maybe that gives us a little bit of an edge.”
It could be a doubly big night for Rib Lake as the baseball team is in the exact same position Thursday, looking to clinch the outright North title at Chequamegon.
“It’s kinda cool having played for (baseball head coach) Dick Iverson and having coached with him to win the conference at the same time,” Scheithauer said. “It’d be neat for both teams to win it outright.”
After Thursday’s 4:45 p.m. game, Rib Lake is scheduled for one last Marawood crossover at Stratford Friday. The Redmen will go to Gilman Monday before hosting Eastern Cloverbelt Conference champion Columbus Catholic Tuesday in a good pretournament non-conference matchup.
Rib Lake 12, Newman 11
Rib Lake scored an unearned run in the bottom of the seventh to end a back-andforth 12-11 battle with visiting Newman Catholic in a Marawood Conference crossover.
Rib Lake fell behind 8-1 after Newman scored six runs in the top of the third, but the Redmen came right back with six in their half and then took an 11-8 lead with four runs in the fifth. Newman, however, scored three in the top of the seventh to even things up before Rib Lake won it. Weik doubled with one out. Blomberg followed with a groundout to third. Weik aggressively went to third on throw to first and when the throw back to third got away, Weik scored the winning run.
Gumz, Niemi, Weik, Blomberg, Kiana Dallmann and Ava Dallmann all had twohit games in the win, while Niemi, Blomberg and Kiana Dallmann drove in two runs each.
Blomberg homered to start to the thirdinning rally. That was followed by a single and stolen base from Kiana Dallmann, an RBI single from Madelyn Dallmann, singles from Ava Dallmann and Kennedy, a run-scoring single from Gumz, a sacrifice fly from Scheithauer and an RBI single from Niemi to make it 8-7. Niemi and Blomberg had RBI singles and Kiana Dallmann drilled a two-run double in the four-run fifth.
Weik struck out five, walked three and hit two batters while allowing eight hits. Just four of Newman’s runs were earned.
“The key thing about that game is that whenever they did something, we answered,” Craig Scheithauer said. “We had to get something in that third inning to at least get back to feeling good about ourselves.”
Phillips 6, Rib Lake 5
Rib Lake went to Phillips with a chance to wrap up the outright North championship, but the celebration was postponed by the Loggers, who answered Rib Lake’s three-run top of the sixth with a three-run rally of their own in the bottom half to beat the Redmen 6-5.
Annaka Tobias limited Rib Lake’s potent offense to seven hits and Phillips consistently put pressure on Rib Lake’s defense throughout the game. Pitcher Kiana Dallmann and the defense limited the damage until the Loggers strung together three straight hits to fuel their game-winning rally in the sixth.
Down 3-2 to start the sixth, Rib Lake got a leadoff walk from Kiana Dallmann. Two outs later, Kennedy walked. The runners were at second and third when Addison Gumz’s line drive just eluded a diving attempt by Phillips centerfielder Mataya Eckert. Gumz got a two-run double out of the play and she scored on Scheithauer’s seeing-eye single through the middle to put Rib Lake up 5-3. Niemi just missed driving Scheithauer in when she pulled two straight pitches just foul drive down the rightfield line. Her at-bat ended with a fly out to left.
Dallmann retired Mel Tingo on a grounder to start the bottom of the sixth, but Delaney Fore and Eckert both singled with one out and freshman Trinity Smith added another, going up the middle to drive in both runners when the ball was bobbled momentarily.
Weik relieved Dallmann and got Tobias to ground out, but an error on a ball hit by Lily Miller allowed Smith to score the goahead run.
Blomberg singled and got to second with an error from the leftfielder with one out in the seventh. But the Redmen couldn’t advance her any further.
The Loggers scored on an error in the first, but Rib Lake countered with a tworun double from Gumz in the second. The Loggers regained the lead in the third. Smith doubled with one out and Tobias followed with a controversial double down the leftfield line that appeared to ruled foul at first, but then was deemed fair. She eventually scored on a bunt by Raelee Williams.
Rib Lake was able to get out of tworunner jams in the fourth and fifth to keep it a 3-2 game.
Gumz was two for four with two doubles and four RBIs. Tobias, Eckert and Miller had two hits apiece for Phillips. Tobias struck out three and walked five.
Kiana Dallman went 5.1 innings, allowing nine hits and six runs, four of which were earned. She struck out three and walked two.
Hatchets 11, Redmen 2
On May 7, two big innings by visiting Tomahawk did the Redmen in during an 11-2 non-conference loss.
A three-run top of the third put Tomahawk up 4-0 and a five-run sixth broke it wide open at 9-1 and put an end to Rib Lake’s five-game winning streak. An RBI double by Kylie Peissig was the key hit in the third for the Hatchets, who banged out six hits in the sixth.
Weik was two for four for the Redmen and drove in a third-inning run with a single after Scheithauer had reached on an error and stole second. Kennedy singled in the sixth, advanced on a passed ball and scored on Scheithauer’s double.
Scheithauer pitched the first five innings. She struck out two and walked three while allowing just four hits and four runs, three of which were earned. Gumz got a rare opportunity to pitch in the last two frames.
Tomahawk’s Camryn Kraklow allowed six hits, struck out nine and walked four.
The tag from Rib Lake third baseman Addison Gumz is too late to get Phillips base runner Annaka Tobias on a close play during the third inning of Thursday’s 6-5 loss to the Loggers. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS
