This story is sponsored by: Curves of Marshfield
By Steve Pilz
For MarshfieldAreaSports.com
MARSHFIELD – The Marshfield Chaparrals amateur baseball team concluded a highly-successful weekend by downing the visiting Westboro Trojans 13-3 in eight innings Sunday afternoon at Jack Hackman Field.
The Chaps won their third game of the weekend in dispatching the Trojans, after downing Plover 10-4 on Friday night and Interwald 8-2 Saturday afternoon as part of a three-game Dairyfest homestand.
The Chaps are 5-1 on the season, with their only loss coming last Sunday at Wausau.
Facing a perennially strong Westboro team, the Chaps started out hot.
Austin Littman led off the bottom of the first with a walk. Justin Rayburn followed suit with a walk of his own. After a couple of outs, Littman was able to score on a wild pitch. Sam Schwanebeck helped prevent a squandered inning by getting an RBI single to score Rayburn and the Chaps led 2-0.
In the second, Nate McDonald walked with one out and took second when the pitcher threw errantly to first. Littman knocked him in two batters later and the Chaps led 3-0.
There was little grey area for Chaparrals starter Bobby Pilz. He was either walking Westboro (six walks), hitting them (two HBPs), or striking them out (nine). But they couldn’t hit him. Pilz didn’t surrender a hit until the fifth inning when he gave up the only two hits he would allow all day.
Derek Niemi legged out an infield dribbler in the fifth and Dustin Freeman drove in a pair of runs on a ball just shy of the centerfielder. The Trojans first run came in the third inning after a pair of walks, a hit batter and a sacrifice fly. It was 3-3 after 4 ½ innings.
“That’s a good hitting team,” Pilz said. “Just try to keep them off balance. I don’t think we had an error today. You try to let the defense work when they are as strong as ours is. Kade (Lancour) was tough too after I came out.”
Littman was hit by a pitch to start the fifth. He promptly stole second and was driven in by Riley Erickson to give the Chaps a 4-3 lead.
Pilz struck out two of four batters in the sixth to get the win and Lancour came in to strike out five of the six batters he faced to earn the save.
Having chased starter Taylor Brayton, who fared very well in his six-inning pitching stint, the Chaps went off in the seventh against reliever Trace Brayton.
Marshfield batted around in the inning after Schwanebeck got a one-out walk. He took second on a wild pitch and stole third. Luke Wirtz walked, Lucius Messerschmidt pushed a bunt past the pitcher for an RBI single for a 5-3 lead, and then the floodgates opened.
McDonald walked and Jack Donahue had a two-RBI single. Littman walked chasing Brayton, and Rayburn drove in a run by drawing a bases-loaded walk before Erickson ended the onslaught with a three-run double.
The Chaps scored six runs on two hits, with four walks against Brayton before Austin Edwards replaced him after just 1/3 of an inning. Edwards gave up two more walks on two hits with another earned run to make it 11-3 after seven innings.
The game ended both unexpectedly and mercifully in the eighth when Wirtz reached on an error and Messerschmidt walked. After an ill-advised attempt to throw Messerschmidt out at first, the Chaps had runners on second and third. McDonald’s drive to deep center put a cap on a perfect weekend for the Chaps and a 13-3 Sunday win.
“It was a pitchers’ duel for most of the game,” Pilz said. “Then we got the sticks rolling. We got three in a row now so we’re just looking forward to next Sunday.”
The Chaps next game is next Sunday, June 10, with a Dairyland League game at Whittlesey at 1:30 p.m.
Chaparrals 13, Trojans 3
Westboro 001 020 00 – 3 2 3
Marshfield 210 010 72 – 13 9 0
WP: Bobby Pilz. LP: Taylor Brayton. SV: Kade Lancour.
SO: Ta. Brayton (6 inn.) 4, Trace Brayton (1/3 inn.) 0, Austin Edwards (2/3 inn.) 0; Pilz (6 inn.) 9, Lancour (2 inn.) 5. BB: Ta. Brayton 6, Tr. Brayton 4, Edwards 2; Pilz 6.
Top hitters: W, Dustin Freeman 1×3, 2 RBIs. M, Riley Erickson 2×5, 2B, 4 RBIs; Jack Donahue 2×4, 2 RBIs; Nate McDonald 1×3 2B 2 RBIs; Austin Littman 1×1, RBI, 3 BBs, SB; Justin Rayburn 1×2, 3 BBs.
Records: Marshfield 5-1; Westboro not reported.