First rule of playing Wisconsin’s fourth-ranked high school baseball team:

Don’t forfeit outs.

Tomah gave away too many outs in the first two innings and lost a chance to play competitive baseball with the favorite to win the Mississippi Valley Conference title.

Four errors and a botched rundown led to eight Logan runs in the first two innings, and the result was an 11-1 Rangers’ victory Monday at Senz Field.

The runs were critical because the Timberwolves played much better over the final five innings.

“I told the kids we played a 3-1 game with the fourth-ranked team in the state for five innings,” Tomah coach Matt Dutton said. “If you look around the MVC, you see one game that was six innings and another that was five. We played the full seven innings, and I was proud of them for that.”

Logan got three runs in a first inning that should have been a shutout. Tomah pitcher Tyler Felber began the game by inducing a groundout and issuing a walk to Austin Lubinsky. Felber then had courtesy runner John Callen picked off first, but the Timberwolves flinched on the rundown and let Callen scoot safely back to first.

It turned out to be a big play. Felber struck out the next batter for what should have been the third out, but he hit the next batter and then gave up two singles and a walk that produced three Logan runs.

Things got worse in the second. Felber gave up back-to-back singles to start the inning, and then three errors and a wild pitch allowed five runs to score.

Felber pitched three shutout innings after that. After Tony Mueller led off the Logan third with an infield single, Felber retired nine of the last 10 batters he faced. He was relieved by Nick Linder to start the sixth inning.

Tomah’s only two hits during the first five innings off Logan starter Austin Lubinsky were a pair of doubles by Dustin Christner. Tomah’s bats came alive in the sixth inning when Felber, Willy Nicksic, Kevin Barth and Trevor Ludeking all hit singles, but Lubinsky, who will pitch at the University of Minnesota next year, held the Timberwolves to one run with a pickoff play at second.

The Timberwolves threatened again in the seventh when Derek Nofsinger led off with a single, but a groundball double play ended the game.

Dutton was encouraged by the performance of his pitchers. Felber struck out three and walked three.

“Our pitchers -- I couldn’t ask any more of them,” said Dutton, who was saving his ace, Ludeking for today’s (Thursday’s) matchup against Sparta.