Beef River nine off to best start in years

Perhaps the best sign things were going to be different for Beef River this season in the Chippewa River Baseball League (CRBL) came last week Wednesday, June 3 at Spangberg Field in Strum

The Bullfrogs were just 2-4 and their only wins came against winless Augusta, home and away early in the season. But it was on this night that BR notched its first win over Osseo well beyond the 2018 season which league records go back to.

Trailing 2-0 in the bottom of the4 eighth, the 'Frogs plated all three of their runs. Lucas Johnson and B. McCabe both had two hits with McCabe hitting a double and D. Brock drove in a run. Winning pitcher Ethan Bartels didn't allow a hit and struckout two batters in the final two innings of the ballgame. BR was able to get seven hits on the Merchants, offsetting the 14 strikeouts Osseo pitcher Luke Eide had. Osseo lost despite gewtting nine hits with Scott Hovel, Cal Freitag and Nolan Matson each hitting doubles and Matson and Freitag both getting two hits. Osseo stranded 10 base runners.

Then over the weekend BR survived the heat and swept Bloomer at home by scores of 7-6 and 4-3 in 10 innings. In Game 1, Beef River had the big hits in the ballgame as Ryan Gray homered, lead-off man Austin Baker went 3-for-4 at the plate with two doubles and two RBIs, Johnson also had two hits and two RBIs. and Alex Anderson also doubled for the 'Frogs. Baker, Ty Fjelstad and Anderson all scored twice. Winning pitcher Wes Boyarski struck out 11 in the victory. BR won Game two with a walk-off hit to break a 2-2 in the 10th. Baker and B. Hanson both drove in runs. The weekend sweep put BR over .500 as they face the Eau Claire Bears this Wednesday, June 10 at Cinder City Park in Altoona beginning at 7 p.m. Their next home game is June 17 vs. the Eau Claire Cavaliers starting at 7 p.m.

Also in CRBL action involving Tri-County Area teams last week, Augusta fell to Whitehall 9-4 at Melby Park back June 3. The A's were held to just five hits and committed three errors. T. Dahnert and J. Myrold both had two hits with Dahnert hitting a triple and L. Ausing a double. The Whitetails had 11 hits in the ballgame and their pitchers combined for 13 strikeouts. Osseo split a doubleheader over the weekend with Tilden to get to the .500 mark. Osseo won Game 2 by an 8-7 score. The Merchants had 12 hits led by two home runs from Matson and J. Hauser and doubles from Alex Byom, Hovell, Aaron Hagberg and Ryan Freitag. Both Freitag and Matson had two RBIs each. Osseo lost Game 1 by an 8-5 score despite having 12 hits to Tilden's eight. Both Matson and Hauser homered and drove in two runs each. Matson went 3-for-4 and scored twice.

Augusta hosts the Eau Claire Cavaliers on Wednesday, June 10 at 7 p.m. while Osseo hosts Whitehall on Friday, June 12, also at 7 p.m. Bloomer and Osseo play a doubleheader on Sunday, June 14 at Bloomer while Augusta hosts Tilden starting at 12:30 p.m.