This story is sponsored by Forward Bank
By Steve Pilz
For MarshfieldAreaSports.com
PLOVER – The Marshfield Chaparrals amateur baseball team, perhaps with an eye toward bigger things this Saturday, dropped their regular-season finale 3-1 to the Plover Pterodactyls on Wednesday night at Memorial Field.
The Chaps’ next game will be at Rib Lake at 3 p.m. Saturday when they face the Hudson River Rats in their first Wisconsin Baseball Association playoff game.
Not many around the team can remember the last time the Chaps were 17-4. Marshfield boasts a team earned-run average around 2.00 and have outscored its opponents 157-64 so far this season.
“It’s been a great regular season for us,” said Chaps player/manager Justin Rayburn. “These last few games we have really tried to get all our guys at-bats and innings on the mound to prepare for the postseason. I think we are as ready as we can be.”
The Pterodactyls earned the season split with the Chaparrals after losing the one in Marshfield on July 11 by the same score.
The story in this one was Plover starting pitcher Jake Drewes, who held the Chaps to just one run in eight innings, striking out seven, walking two, and scattering five hits.
The Chaps sent five guys to the mound as they ready themselves for the postseason. Starter Bobby Pilz allowed a run in his two innings of work, Ryan Metz pitched two clean innings, Hunter Korger allowed a pair of earned runs but struck out four in his two innings, and Sam Schwanebeck and Kade Lancour each pitched a clean inning as well. That quintet allowed just four hits.
Pilz was the unlucky loser, his first of the year, as he was behind when he exited, a deficit the Chaps could never recover from.
Catcher Riley Erickson drove in his 29th run of the year when he drove in Austin Littman in the eighth for the Chaps’ only tally. The 29 RBIs came in 19 games for Erickson in 72 at-bats.
Erickson boasts a .375 average, Littman is at .386 and Nate McDonald leads the Chaps at .394.
Should the Chaps be successful Saturday in Rib Lake, they’ll return the next day to take on the winner of Lake Superior and Whittlesey at 3 p.m. The regional winner moves on to the WBA State Tournament in Osseo on Aug. 17-19.
Pterodactyls 3, Chaparrals 1
Marshfield 000 000 010 – 1 5 0
Plover 010 020 00x – 3 4 1
WP: Jake Drewes. LP: Bobby Pilz.
SO: Pilz (2 inn.) 0, Ryan Metz (2 inn.) 0, Hunter Korger ( 2 inn.) 4, Sam Schwanebeck ( 1 inn.) 1, Kade Lancour (1 inn.) 1; Drewes (8 inn.) 7. BB: Pilz 2, Korger 2; Drewes 2.
Top hitters: M, Riley Erickson 2×3, RBI. P, Brad Cieslewisz 1×3, RBI.
Records: Marshfield 17-4; Plover not reported.