Elk Mound peaking to start baseball playoffs

LEVEL SWING — Elk Mound’s Kole Ploeckelman sent this Glenwood City pitch to the outfield for one of his two hits in the Mounders 10-0 shut out of the Hilltoppers in last Thursday’s Division 3 regional baseball quarterfinal. —photo by Shawn DeWitt

ELK MOUND — Timing, they say, is everything.

For the Elk Mound baseball team, it’s timing could not have been better.

The Mounders put together their first, four-game win streak of the season as they wrapped up the regular season and opened tournament play last week.

Prior to that, the best Elk Mound’s diamond boys had been able to muster were back-to-back victories over Pepin/Alma and Glenwood City back in late April.

This latest streak also included a big win over conference foe Glenwood City in last Thursday’s WIAA Division 3 baseball regional quarterfinal. The Mounders shut out the Hilltoppers 10-0 in five innings at Elk Mound Lions Park and advanced to yesterday’s regional semifinal in Boyceville. Elk Mound, seeded third, took on the Dunn-St. Croix co-champion and second-seeded Bulldogs. The winner will advance to today’s (May 30) regional championship where they will face either top-ranked Regis or four-seed Spring Valley.

Elk Mound, who improved to 9-6, finished the regular season with a pair of road wins, blanked Pepin/Alma 13-0 last Monday, May 21 and then beat Black River Falls 10-5 in a non-conference tilt the following day, May 22.

ELK MOUND senior Ethan Kjellberg prepared to send this throw home in last Thursday’s Division 3 regional quarterfinal baseball game at home against Glenwood City. Kjellberg allowed just three hits and had five strike outs in the Mounders’ 10-0 blanking of the Hilltoppers in the May 24 victory. Elk Mound played at Boyceville in yesterday’s regional semifinal battle. —photo by Shawn DeWitt

Glenwood City

Elk Mound collected seven hits and were aided by as many walks from Glenwood City pitchers en route to a 10-0 shut out win over the Hilltoppers in the May 24 Division 3 regional opener at the Lions Park in Elk Mound.

The Mounders scored four times in the first and third innings before bringing the playoff contest to an end in the fifth frame with two final runs.

Senior pitching ace Ethan Kjellberg also got the job done on the mound as he allowed Glenwood City just three hits and one walk and no runs and finished with six strike outs to earn the complete-game,  shut-out victory.

Three straight walks were issued to Mounder batters to open their first. Dylan Curry, Chase Rhude and Kjellberg all walked to load the bases. Blake Rosenthal then smacked an RBI-single off the Toppers’ starting pitcher Hadin DeSmith. Kole Ploeckelman brought in two more runs with a hit to make it 3-0. Rosenthal scored the fourth run of the inning off an error.

The Mounders’ third inning began with three consecutive hits by Ploeckelman, Logan Bergh and Dakota Bedell. All three eventually scored as did Nate Lew thanks to a big one-out, 2 RBI double off the bat of Curry.

A pair of walks and a hit set the stage for Jonas Kohls, who rapped a fifth-inning single to bring home the Mounders’ final two runs for the 10-0 win.

Ploeckelman’s two hits led the Mounders offensive assault. He also finished with a  pair of RBI along with Curry and Kohls.

Black River Falls

A six-run fourth inning propelled Elk Mound to a 10-5 win over host Black River Falls in last Tuesday’s regular-season finale for the Mounders.

In what served as a final tune-up for their regional contest against Glenwood City, the Mounders collected 11 hits to beat the similarly clad, black and orange, Tigers by five runs.

Elk Mound scored single runs in the first and third innings to take an early 2-0 advantage. They also scored twice in the seventh.

Trailing 8-0 after the Mounders plated six runs in the fourth, Black Rivers Falls finally erased its scoreboard goose egg with a run in the bottom half of that frame. The Tigers tacked on two more in the fifth and a pair in their final at bat in the seventh.

Four Mounders -Chase Rhude, Blake Rosenthal, Logan Bergh and Ethan Kjellberg – finished the game with two hits. Kjellberg had four RBIs and Rosenthal two.

Rosenthal once garnered the pitching victory. He threw for four innings and surrendered just five hits and a single run with no bases on balls and five strike outs. Dylan Curry, Ethan Kjellberg and Blaze Todd each tossed an inning. Todd did not give up a hit or run while both Curry and Kjellberg gave up three hits and a pair of runs.

Pepin/Alma

The Mounders scored runs in each of the first four innings including six in the second to shut out host Pepin/Alma 13-0 in the Dunn-St. Croix conference finale for both teams.

The win gave the Mounders a 6-2 finish in the Dunn-St. Croix, a game behind co-champions Boyceville and Durand.

Elk Mound led 2-0 after one inning but blew the game open with half a dozen scores in the second. The Mounders added three more in the third and plated their final two runs in the fourth.

Elk Mound collected ten hits and 13 RBIs. Home runs by Ethan Kjellberg and Logan Bergh and a double from Dylan Black punctuated the Mounders offensive fire power in the May 21 contest in Alma.

Dylan Curry and Kjellberg each had two hits for the visiting Mounders. Kjellberg and Bergh also had four RBIs and Black finished with three.

Four pitchers combined to hold the Eagles to just one hit and no runs. Blake Rosenthal started and threw two innings of scoreless and hitless ball to get the win. He truck out four batters as well. Curry, Kjellberg and Blaze Todd each threw an inning of run-free baseball. While Curry surrendered Pepin/Alma’s lone hit, Kjellberg and Todd joined Rosenthal in not allowing a hit or run.