Eleva-Strum, Fall Creek, stay atop respective leagues

It was a week of highs and lows for the Eleva-Strum baseball team which left them where they started at .500.

The Cardinals edged Arcadia on Thursday, April 18 at home by a 5-3 score and walloped Lincoln 22-2 in five innings Friday at Alma Center led by Tyler Webb's homer, the first of the season for E-S.

Webb also scored on a suicide squeeze at Altoona on Saturday, April 20 and pitched six strong innings, holding the Railroaders to just one run with seven strikeouts. But the Cards couldn't hold the lead thanks to a two-RBI triple by Altoona's Cameron St. John and an RBI-single from teammate Keaton Camastral in the bottom of the seventh which tied the score. Altoona used an error in the ninth to score a walk-off win which improved their overall record to 9-1 while E-S is 4-4. Central's Carter Gunderson scored a run and had a single in the ballgame.

Fortunately for the No. 14 ranked Cards they were able to get back over .500 and stay unbeaten in the Dairyland Conference win a win Tuesday at Alma/Pepin by a 9-1 score.

Fall Creek (6-4 overall) was also up and down in the past week. The Crickets split a doubleheader with Chippewa Falls McDonell on Thursday, April 18 in Chippewa Falls, losing Game 1 by a 8-6 score but winning Game 2 by a 12-6 margin. The very next day they topped Cadott at home 18-10, scoring 11 runs alone in the sixth inning to overcome a 10-7 deficit. FC was led at the plate by Josh Wright with two hits and three RBIs while Jack Walden had two hits, including a double. Finley Wright was the winning pitcher. FC then lost Monday, April 22, 8-6 at Blair-Taylor despite Ethan Westrate's three-run homer in the first inning and doubles from Walden and Wright. The Wildcats scored eight runs combined in the fourth and fifth innings and had 10 hits to turn around the early deficit.

But then things looked up again for the Crickets as they punched out Stanley-Boyd 13-3 Tuesday, April 23 at Stanley-Boyd. FC had 11 hits and scored all 13 of their runs in the final two innings of play to win six. Nathan Kurtz was the winning pitcher and Fall Creek's top hitters were Westrate 3-for-4 with a double and two RBIs, Jamison Rochester two hits; Kurtz with a two-RBI double; Walden a two-RBI single and Bryson Bann one hit and two RBIs.

Yesterday's win puts Fall Creek atop the Western Cloverbelt Conference at 4-2, especially after Cadott snapped Eau Claire Regis' 28-game conference winning streak yesterday in a 10-2 victory.

Osseo-Fairchild's contest with Bloomer on Friday, April 19 was suspended in the fourth inning with the Thunder ahead 10-8 due to cold, snowy weather and will be completed when the two teams meet again later this season. The Thunder (2-8 overall) split a doubleheader last week Thursday, April 18 at Cadott in wild extremes, losing Game 1 by a 20-0 score and winning Game 2 by a 12-1 margin. Brooks Koxlien and Spencer Osmonson both had multi-games in Game 2 and winning pitcher Brogan Korger tossed a no-hitter in Game 2. Against Whitehall Tuesday, April 23 at Melby Field in Whitehall, the Thunder were edged 3-2. Emerick Korger had his first varsity hit and Koxlien hit a double. Despite losses the Thunder have a 2-2 record in league play.

Augusta was shutout at Whitehall on Thursday, April 18 by a 10-0 score and had its contest with Eau Claire Immanuel Lutheran postponed to May 9. The Beavers lost back-to-back games this week at home vs. Neillsville/Granton 18-6 on Monday and 18-8 Tuesday at Lincoln. Against the Wardogs, AHS had just three hits, two coming from Nate Schroeder's bat, including a double. N/G scored six runs in the fifth to break open what was a 7-4 contest. Against Lincoln, the Beavers (1-8) couldn't overcome eight errors despite the fact they cut into an early Hornets' lead in the fifth with three runs to make the score 10-8 before giving up six runs in the bottom half of the inning. AHS had six scattered hits but Cashton Leslin and Joe Schong both hit doubles and Leslin drive in three runs.

All prep baseball games scheduled for Tuesday, April 16 were rained out.

Prep Baseball Standings

Western Cloverbelt
Fall Creek 4-2
Bloomer 3-1
Eau Claire Regis 3-1
Cadott 2-2
Osseo-Fairchild 2-2
Stanley-Boyd 1-3
Chippewa Falls McDonell 1-5

Dairyland
Blair-Taylor 5-0
Eleva-Strum 4-0
Eau Claire Immanuel Lutheran 3-0
Whitehall 3-3
Alma/Pepin 2-2
Independence/Gilmanton 1-2
Cochrane-Fountain City 1-3
Lincoln 1-3
Melrose-Mindoro 1-4
Augusta 0-4