Merchants, Beef River make WBA playoffs
Both the Osseo Merchants and Beef River Bullfrogs amateur baseball teams are in the Wisconsin Baseball Association (WBA) playoffs.
Osseo is in the Class A River Falls Regional. They will face the La Crosse 35ers on Saturday, Aug. 8 at noon at First Bank Stadium in RF. The winner plays at noon again on Sunday, Aug. 9 against Lake Superior while the loser will face Hudson on Saturday at 6 p.m.
Beef River meanwhile will be in Osceola next weekend for the Class B regional. BR plays at 1 p.m. on Saturday at Okey Park vs. either the host Braves or Cumberland. They play again on Sunday, Aug. 9 at 1 p.m.
The state tournaments are the following weekend, Class A in Marshfield, Class B in Ellsworth.
Both Tri-County Area teams squared off against each other last week Wednesday, Aug. 22 at Jon Soiney Field in Osseo. The Merchants edged the Bullfrogs 4-3. Osseo needed to score a pair of runs in the bottom of the eighth after BR took a 3-2 lead with runs in the top half of that inning. The Bullfrogs way outhit the Merchants 8-2 but eight walks and three errors helped Osseo get the base runners they needed to win. Wes Thidbodeau and Ryan Freitag both had RBIs with Thibodeau getting a crucial RBI-double. Ty Flestad has a solid performance for Beef River as he had four hits and pitched a two-hitter. Alex Anderson had two hits and an RBI for BR.
Closing out the Chippewa River Baseball League season last weekend, Beef River was swept by the Eau Claire Bears at Cinder City Park in Altoona 6-2 and 5-3 on Sunday, July 26 while Osseo beat Augusta 11-3 at Memorial Park in Augusta, also on Sunday, July 26. The loss put the A's winless this season in league play. Both teams combined for 27 hits but the Merchants had the bigger ones as Freitag had two doubles, and a triple while Alex Byom had a double and a home run. Byom led the team in RBIs with three, while Freitag had two. Freitag led the team in runs scored with four. Augusta got doubles from John Marak, J. Myrold and Brennan King. T. Dahnert had two hits to lead the A's and teammate J.J. Breaker drove in two runs.
The two late league wins put Osseo into a first place tie with the Eau Claire Cavaliers in the South Division at 12--8 but it was the Cavs who qualified for the CRBL playoffs along with North Division winners Tilden and Cadott, both 16-4, and Jim Falls at 13-7 with the better record in a tie-breaker over Chippewa Falls, also 13-7.
Jim Falls will play for its first CRBL league title since 2009 as they defeated Tilden in a semifinal match-up 11-7 this past Wednesday, July 29. In other semifinal, the Cavaliers edged Cadott 4-3. The championship game will be at 12:30 p.m. at Carson Park this Saturday, Aug. 1.
The CRBL All-League Team for 2026 is as follows
OF Logan Burzynski Cadott Red Sox
OF Jack Redwine Cadott Red Sox
OF Nolan Matson Osseo Merchants
3B Tyler Plitzner Eau Claire Bears
SS Caden Erickson Eau Claire Cavaliers
2B Jack Kein Cadott Red Sox
1B Jacob Lacey Tilden Tigers
C Sam Knickerbocker Eau Claire Cavaliers
UT Adam Krajewski Tilden Tigers
DH Ryan Freitag Osseo Merchants
P Jackson Gugel Jim Falls Sturgeons
P Andrew Milner Eau Claire Cavalier
P PJ LeQuia Tilden Tigers
Kein, Freitag and Milner were unanimous selections.
Freitag has now been selected to all-league four years in a row.
Knickerbocker, Freitag and Matson are repeat winners.
The all-time leader in All-CRBL awards is Andy Niese with 13.
Receiving honorable mention, all league were:
Augusta Athletics Brennan King UT
Beef River Bullfrogs Lucas Johnson 3B
Bloomer Woodticks Nolan Wysocki 1B
Cadott Red Sox Jonah Hanson C
Chippewa Falls Lumberjacks Blake Trippler LF
Eau Claire Bears LaVante Bean RF
Eau Claire Cavaliers Xavier Bembnister 3B
Jim Falls Sturgeons Bob Soran C
Osseo Merchants Alex Byom UT
Tilden Tigers Nolan Baier 3B
Whitehall Whitetails Chris Killian UT
Gold Glove Awards
Team Player Position
Augusta Athletics John Marak C
Beef River Bullfrogs Brendan McCabe C
Bloomer Woodticks Connor Hicks C
Cadott Red Sox Jack Kein 2B
Chippewa Falls Lumberjacks Jake Nelson 3B
Eau Claire Bears Lance Lettner LF
Eau Claire Cavaliers Logan Hesselman 1B
Jim Falls Sturgeons Mayson Tester SS
Osseo Merchants Jordan Hauser C
Tilden Tigers Jack Gorman C
Whitehall Whitetails Connor Weltzien 1B
Other CRBL Awards
Award Player Team
Rookie of the Year Mason Bruesewitz Eau Claire Bears
MVP Sam Knickerbocker Eau Claire Cavaliers
Jim Hoepner – Pitcher of the Year Jackson Gugel Jim Falls Sturgeons
Jan Krueger – Manager of the Year Pete Thaler Jim Falls Sturgeons
Sportsmanship Award Augusta Athletics
