This story is sponsored by Total Electric
By Steve Pilz
For MarshfieldAreaSports.com
MARSHFIELD – The Marshfield Chaparrals amateur baseball team pushed its season record to 4-1 with a pair of victories this weekend at Jack Hackman Field.
The Chaps topped Plover 10-4 on Friday night and Interwald 8-2 on Saturday afternoon.
In Saturday’s game Austin Littman led off the bottom of the first for the Chaps with a double and stole third base. Two batters later catcher Riley Erickson hit the first of his three sacrifice flies in the game to score Littman and the Chaps led 1-0.
Littman got on again to lead-off the third when the left fielder misplayed the ball. Justin Rayburn singled before he and Littman piled off a double steal. Erickson again lofted a fly ball, this time to center and the Chaps led 2-0. After an out and a walk to Sam Schwanebeck, RBI singles by Luke Wirtz and Lucius Messerschmidt put the Chaps up 4-0.
Bobby Pilz led off the fourth with a single. Littman singled and Rayburn walked, loading the bases. Erickson again flied to left to execute the sacrifice as Pilz scored making it 5-0. Right fielder Kyle Westhuis’ single plated Littman and the Chaps led 6-0 after four.
“Overall, we’ve really been hitting the ball well the past couple of games,” said Chap player/manager Justin Rayburn. “The biggest thing has been our timely hitting. We have done a nice job manufacturing runs and bringing guys in when they are in scoring position.”
After Interwalkd scored twice in the fifth, Schwanebeck walked with two outs in the sixth for Marshfield. With some heads-up baserunning, Schwanebeck turned a wild pitch into a two-base advantage, sliding into third ahead of the tag. Wirtz drove him in with a single up the middle to make it 7-2.
Noah Panzer’s sacrifice fly scored Westhuis with the Chaparrals’ eighth run. The game ended after eight innings due to rain.
Chap starting pitcher Jack Donahue left after seven strong innings. He scattered nine hits, striking out six and allowed two walks with just two runs allowed. Westhuis pitched a clean eighth to finish off the win.
Against Plover on Friday, the Chaps put up three runs in the third and fifth innings, and poured on four more in the sixth to take 10-0 lead and won going away.
Chaparrals starter Ryan Metz thwarted the only real threat he faced in six innings of work in the top of the second. After allowing a pair of singles Metz buckled down and recorded a come-backer to himself for the first out, a strike out and a ground-out to second to end the threat.
The Chaps got on the board in the third when Nate MacDonald led off with a single. Pilz drove a two-strike double over the first baseman’s head putting Chaps on second and third. Littman batted next and hit a ball the second baseman misplayed, allowing both runners to score. Littman scored later in the inning on a wild pitch making it 3-0.
Marshfield was at it again in the fifth. Rayburn led off with a walk, Erickson followed with a single, and both moved up on a wild pitch. Westhuis drove in Rayburn with a sacrifice fly to left, Schwanebeck singled and stole second, and after a fly out, Lucius Messerschmidt walked to load the bases. MacDonald lofted a fly ball toward the right fielder that appeared to be lost in the lights and two more Chaps scored giving them a 6-0 lead.
“I was glad I was able to contribute tonight,” Schwanebeck said. “Metz (Ryan) threw us six good innings tonight. He mixes his pitches well and kept Plover off balance.”
Some more unearned runs in the sixth, wrapped around an RBI single by Westhuis and an RBI double by Schwanebeck, put the Chaps up 10-0 after six innings.
Derek Lemmens cracked a three-run double in the seventh and the Pterodactyls scored an unearned run in the eighth, but didn’t get any closer.
The Chaps will take on the Westboro Trojans at 1:30 p.m. Sunday in a Dairyland League game at Hackman Field.
Friday’s game
Chaparrals 10, Pterodactyls 4
Plover 000 000 310 – 4 9 3
Marshfield 003 034 00x – 10 10 4
WP: Ryan Metz. LP: Jake Dreves.
SO: Dreves (4 1/3 inn.) 3, Gregg Trudell (1 2/3 inn.) 1, Zach Hintz (2 inn.) 2; Metz (6 inn.) 4, Hunter Korger (3 inn.) 2. BB: Dreves 3, Trudell 4, Hintz 3; Metz 1, Korger 3.
Top hitters: P, DJ Drohner 2×4; Derek Lemmens 2×5, 2B, 3 RBIs; Jason Jones 2×5. M, Sam Schwanebeck 2×3, 2B, 2 RBIs; Nate MacDonald 2×3, 2 RBIs; Bobby Pilz 2B.
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Saturday’s game
Chaparrals 7, Woodticks 2
Interwald 000 020 00 – 2 9 1
Marshfield 103 201 10 – 8 12 2
WP: Jack Donahue. LP: Noah Weinke
SO: Weinke (8 inn.) 1; Donahue (7 inn.) 5, Kyle Westhuis (1 inn.) 0. BB: Weinke 5; Donahue 2.
Top hitters: I, Luke Blomberg 2×3; Zack Iverson 2×4, 2B, RBI; Nick Gerstberger 2×4; Noah Weinke 2×4. M, Luke Wirtz 2×3, 2 RBIs; Nate MacDonald 2×3; Bobby Pilz 2×4; Lucius Messerschmidt 2×5, RBI; Westhuis 2×5, RBI; Austin Littman 2×5; Riley Erickson 1×2 3 RBI.