Glenwood City baseball defeats Rib Lake, falls to McDonell Central in regional finals

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At the beginning of this season, few if any had penciled in the Glenwood City baseball team as a WIAA regional finalist.

But that is just what the Hilltoppers were last week.

Following a home win over Thorp in the WIAA Division 4 regional opener May 25, Glenwood City advanced to semifinals last Tuesday, May 30. Despite nearly a 100-mile trek to Rib Lake High School, the seventh-seeded Toppers stunned the number two Redmen 12-4 to earn a spot in the next day’s regional championship against host Chippewa Falls McDonell Central Catholic. The Macks collected a few more hits than the Hilltoppers and several more runs as they won the Wednesday, May 31 regional championship contest played at Casper Park, 14-2, in five innings.

This was the first time since the 2014 tournament that Glenwood City actually won a playoff game. Ironically, the Hilltoppers defeated Elmwood and second-ranked Prairie Farm in the first two games that year before losing to  top-ranked Pepin/Alma in the Division 4 regional final.

The Hilltoppers, who showed marked improvement especially at the end of season winning seven of their final nine games including six straight before the McDonell loss, finished the 2023 season with a 9-9 overall record  and 6-8 mark in the Dunn-St. Croix.

Rib Lake

Hot and humid conditions and an hour and half drive to Rib Lake did not deter Glenwood City from its mission, getting a second straight regional win.

While both teams finished the contest with nine hits and the Toppers committed a pair of errors with three by the Redmen, it was the ten walks that four of the five Rib Lake pitchers served up that helped Glenwood City earn the eight-run victory.

Rib Lake drew first blood with three runs in the bottom of the second. The Redmen took advantage of a walk and hit batsman by the Toppers’ starting pitcher Steven Booth and a defensive error to bring in two of those runs while a base hit brought home the third score.

Glenwood City brought the game back to even with three runs of its own in the top of the third. Rib Lake starting hurler Michael Borchardt walked Max Janson, Caleb Klinger and Jayden Quinn on successive at bats to load the bases with one out. Peyton Theune then delivered a base hit to left field that scored all three runners.

The Toppers went on to score three runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings while the Redmen managed just a fifth-inning run.

In the Glenwood City fifth,  Janson walked and Theune singled, then Booth walked to load the bases, Janson scored on an error, Noah Brite walked to load the bases once again and Andrew Blaser picked up a pair of RBIs on a fielder’s choice and throwing error. The Toppers had a 6-3 lead.

Rib Lake scored in the bottom half to cut its deficit to 6-4.

But, the Hilltoppers added another three runs in the sixth. Klinger opened the frame with a single and then Quinn hit into a fielder’s choice and Klinger was put out. Quinn went to second when Janson was hit by a pitch. A single by Theune scored Quinn, Logan McVeigh came in as a courtesy runner for Theune, Booth then hit into a fielder’s choice and Janson was erased. A pitching error allowed McVeigh and Booth to score to make it 9-4.

In the seventh, Klinger again singled and went to second on a ground-out sacrifice by Quinn. Janson walked and Theune was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Booth then flew out to center but Klinger came to the plate. McVeigh and Vinnie Wheeler both came on as pinch runners and eventually scored on a Noah Brite double that made the final score 12-4.

Theune led the Toppers with a four-hit (including a double), four-RBI day in Rib Lake and Klinger added two hits and scored twice in three plate appearances. Noah Brite finished with a two-RBI double, and McVeigh scored three runs as a courtesy runner.

Booth went three innings on the mound to earn the win as he gave up three runs on six hits with three walks and a pair of strikeouts. Janson tossed four innings allowed just a single run on three hits with a trio of Ks and one free pass.

McDonell Central

While the Hilltoppers were the benefactors of walks in the previous day’s game at Rib Lake, pitchers Blake Fayerweather, Noah Brite and Peyton Theune surrendered a combined nine walks that helped host Chippewa Falls McDonell Central Catholic earn a 14-2 regional championship win over Glenwood City Wednesday, May 31 at Casper Park.

And unlike the game against Rib Lake, Glenwood City had trouble generating offense and runs against McDonell as it finished with just five hits to the Macks eight.

Both teams had an error.

McDonell Central jumped out to an early 7-0 lead with six runs in the first inning and another in the second.

Glenwood City scored its only two runs of the contest in the top of the third. Caleb Klinger singled and scored on Jayden Quinn’s double, who eventually scored on a Steven Booth ground-out from third that made it 7-2.

The Macks, however, scored four times in the bottom half of the inning and three more times in the fourth to make it a 14-2 contest.

The Toppers went down in order in the top of the fifth to end the game.

Quinn led the GC hitters with his double while Theune, Aaron Brigham, Blake Fayerweather and Caleb Klinger each had singles.

Fayerweather started on the mound and went one inning to suffer the throwing loss. He gave up six runs on four hits, walked three and struck out two. Brite threw two innings and gave up five runs on three hits with four walks. Theune surrendered three runs on a hit and two walks in one inning of mound work.