Boyceville avenges loss to Spring Valley, beats Colfax
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The Boyceville baseball team scored a pair of three-run victories last week to stay just a game behind conference leading Elk Mound in the chase for the 2022 Dunn-St. Croix championship.
Following a lackluster 8-5 win on the road over upstart Colfax last Monday, May 2, Boyceville pulled out all the stops and knocked off Spring Valley 9-6 on the Cardinals’ home field to avenge its only loss of this season, a 5-3 loss back on April 11.
Those two wins pushed the Bulldogs’ conference mark to 7-1 and 9-1 overall while Elk Mound is 8-0.
That will set up a showdown between the Bulldogs and Mounders as they are slated to play each other twice this week. Elk Mound was in Boyceville Monday while the Bulldogs will go to Elk Mound this Friday. Boyceville will also be in Mondovi on Thursday. They return home to host Durand next Monday, May 16 and Elmwood/Plum City on Tuesday, May 17.
Colfax
Although the Bulldogs had just six hits and struck out seven times they were able to generate just enough offense to post a 8-5 road win in Colfax last Monday, May 2.
“I wasn’t really impressed with any facet of our game tonight,” said Boyceville head coach Michael Roemhild. “
“I thought we were flat defensively, offensively, and in the dugout. I think our guys were overlooking Colfax, which is something you can never do in high school baseball. I thought Colfax has improved tremendously since our first meeting. They put the ball in play, ran the bases well, and I thought both of their pitchers did a good job throwing strikes,” he added.
Pitching duo Chase Hollister and Jacob Granley allowed the Vikings just five hits over seven innings. Hollister threw four innings, giving up three runs on a pair of hits while striking out seven and walking four in a winning effort. Granley tossed three frames and gave up three hits for two runs and struck out three with a walk.
“Our goal was to pitch Jacob and Chase a certain number of pitches and then be able to go to Devin, Simon, or Ira,” noted Roemhild. “We just never got a comfortable enough lead for that to happen. Though, I do think it was good for Chase to work through a couple situations. Defensively, we had four errors, which is four too many.”
Boyceville opened the game with a pair of runs in its first at bat. Braden Roemhild drew a lead-off walk, stole second and advanced to third on a passed ball and then came in to score on a double by Ira Bialzik who in turn scored on an error for a 2-0 Bulldog lead.
Colfax knotted it with a pair of runs in their half of the first.
Boyceville responded with a pair of unearned runs in the top of the second as Nick Olson and Tyler Dormanen both walked and scored on Viking errors.
The Bulldogs stretched their lead to 6-2 with two more runs in the third after Chase Hollister hit a one-out double and scored when Devin Halama followed with a single. Halama stole third and scored on a passed ball.
With single runs in the fourth and fifth, the Bulldogs increase their advantage to 8-2.
But the host Vikings made things interesting as they scored a pair in the fifth and a final run in the bottom of the seventh to make it 8-5 before Boyceville slammed the door shut.
Hollister finished with a pair of hits in four plate appearances and scored two runs. Ira Bialzik finished with that double while Dormanen, Halama, and Dawson McRoberts each had a hit for the Bulldogs.
Braden Roemhild and Tyler Dormanen also finished the contest with a pair of stolen bases.
Spring Valley
Despite being outhit eight to seven, Boyceville was able to generate runs to even its season series against Spring Valley after taking a 9-6 win on the Cardinals’ home turf last Thursday, May 5.
A four-run first inning helped the Bulldogs’ cause.
Roemhild and Bialzik singled to open the game. Granley then walked to load the bases. After McRoberts popped out to first base, Chase Hollister brought three runs home with a double. Devin Halama followed with a double that scored Hollister to make it 4-0 in the Bulldogs’ favor.
Spring Valley cut its deficit in half with two runs in the second.
Boyceville responded with three in the top of the third to take a 7-2 lead. McRoberts started the inning with a single. He scored on Hollister’s second consecutive two bagger. Halama was it by a pitch to put two on base. Nick Olson drew a walk to load the bases. After back-to-back strike outs, Braden Roemhild delivered a base hit that scored both Hollister and Halama.
Spring Valley added a run in their half of the third.
Boyceville grew its advantage to 9-3 with single runs in the fourth and fifth innings.
The Red Birds then tried to rally as they scored single runs in the final three frames but came up short.
Hollister had a pair of doubles with two RBIs and two runs scored, Bialzik collected a pair of hits, Halama finished with a double and three RBIs, and McRoberts and Roemhild each had a hit. Roemhild also added two stolen bases.
Senior Jacob Granley earned the mound win. In five innings of work, he allowed four hits and five runs while striking out seven and walking three. Chase Hollister threw two innings, where he gave up three hits and a single run and struck out one and walked one.