Story originally printed in the Tomah Journal or online at www.tomahjournal.com
Published - Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Baseball team beats Wisconsin Rapids for first win
After its first three games, the Tomah High School baseball team has seen almost everything -- a pitcher’s duel and two slugfests.
The result is a 1-2 non-conference record heading into today’s Mississippi Valley Conference opener against La Crosse Logan.
The Timberwolves opened their regular season Thursday with a 4-2 loss to Marshfield at Glendale Field in Tomah. Saturday, the action shifted to Senz Field at Tomah High School, where Tomah defeated Wisconsin Rapids, 11-5, before losing to Eau Claire North, 16-8. The Marshfield game was originally supposed to be a road contest, but the game was moved to Tomah based on field conditions.
Tomah coach Matt Dutton said it took awhile for his team to get going against Marshfield. The Timberwolves struggled through six shutout innings before exploding for three runs in the seventh.
“I thought we were flat in the first six innings -- we didn’t play with any fire,” Dutton said. “I was really proud of how we battled back in the seventh inning. If we play like we did in the seventh inning for the rest of the season, we’ll be fine.”
Tomah had just one hit, a second-inning double by Derek Nofsinger, for the first six innings but mounted a rally in the seventh. It started when Nofsinger reached on an error and advanced to second on an Aaron Gasser walk. After Nick Linder hit a two-out single to load the bases, Marshfield pitcher Matt Hiller lost his shutout by tossing a wild pitch that allowed Nofsinger to score. An error on the shortstop allowed Gasser to score and Linder to reach third, but Hiller rang up a strikeout to end the game.
Dutton liked the performance of his two pitchers. Trevor Ludeking pitched the first six innings and struck out eight batters before yielding to Gasser in the seventh. Gasser allowed a leadoff double, but he got the next three outs to hurl a shutout inning.
“Trevor threw an amazing game,” Dutton said. “He’s a bulldog.”
As for Gasser, who didn’t pitch varsity last season, Dutton said, “I think Aaron is going to be a good member of our pitching staff. We wanted to give him an inning to see if he could help us Saturday.”
Gasser started the Saturday game against Wisconsin Rapids and pitched three shutout innings before getting relief help from Mytchel Schmidt in the fourth. Wisconsin Rapids took a 2-0 lead in the fourth, but Tomah roared back in the bottom of the inning. The rally was capped by Kevin Barth’s two-run homer that sailed over the leftfield scoreboard and hit the greenhouse roof.
Tomah scored five more runs in the sixth to clinch the game.
“It was really important for Tomah baseball to get that first ‘W,’” Dutton said. “I thought our hitters really came into their own in that first game against Rapids. Coach Tony Vitcenda does such a good job working with our hitters.”
In Saturday’s middle game, North thrashed Wisconsin Rapids, 19-7, and North's offense didn’t let up against Tomah. Barth smashed another two-run homer in the top of the first inning to give the Timberwolves a 2-0 lead, but North took the lead for good with five runs in the bottom of the third.
Nofsinger, Linder and Willy Nicksic all smashed doubles in the fifth inning to shrink North’s margin to 9-8, but the Huskies scored four of their own in the bottom of the frame. North reliever Ryan Iverson pitched a perfect seventh inning to seal the outcome.
Dutton used the Northl game to get a good look at his pitching staff. Tomah used four pitchers against Northl, and six different hurlers have already seen action for the Timberwolves.
All stories copyright 2006 Tomah Journal and other attributed sources.