Four county teams made it through the opening playoff weekend to advance to the State Finals bracket (Spring Valley, River Falls, Elmwood and Ellsworth).

The four will each enter into a final eight style bracket with the winner claiming the State title in their respective division.

Division A
Spring Valley

The Spring Valley Hawks won a nailbiter Saturday over the Eau Claire Cavaliers 4-3. It took everything they had, but a wild pitch delivered the lead run that they would not give back. Cal Smith and Treysen Witt combined for a strong outing.

Sunday’s game was pure dominance, with Aaron Froelich tossing seven innings in an 11-1, seven-inning win over Haugen.

After a few years of coming up short, and a dispute over player eligibility a year ago keeping them from playing in the finals, the Hawks have finally landed in the nest.

“It was a good breath of air,” outfielder Blaine Guthrie said. “We’ve had very talented teams over the last five, six years, where they’ve all had the opportunity to. We finally did it. We finally got over that little hump.”

With members of the St. Croix Valley League peppering both the A and B Divisions, Guthrie said the boys are prepped to make a run at the best of the best.

“Nothing to any other leagues out there, I know we always say it is the toughest league,” Guthrie said. “Even some of the teams that didn’t make it, the quality of baseball that they played throughout the whole year, excluding this past weekend, is something really cool.”

For Spring Valley, the two things they have ridden all year are the ability to take away hits and a lineup that can contribute top to bottom. If those things are working over the weekend in Hayward, they could just get it done.

“It’s going to take all nine batters again,” Guthrie said. “Championships are built on defense and pitching, and so, for us, we’re taking away hits instead of giving up hits.”

River Falls

As the defending State champions, the Fish know all eyes are on them to go back-to-back for the first time. Despite this, they are just playing their game day in and day out.

“Come together, play good baseball as a team,” catcher Chase McQuade said. “We came in here knowing that there’s no team that can really stop us if we play our own brand of baseball.”

The weekend slate was really no problem for a River Falls team that is the favorite to win it all again, picking up 17-1 and 15-0 wins.

“It’s going to come down to us being ourselves,” McQuade said. “We have all the talent in the world in this dugout. We’ve just got to keep piecing it together, and I think we’ll be successful at the end of it.”

For them to get it done, McQuade wants to see the hearts of champions on the field.

“It doesn’t matter who we’re playing, we’re going to give them our best,” McQuade said. “It doesn’t matter if we’re up by 10 or up by one or down by 10, we’re going to come out here and we’re going to try our best.”

Division B
Elmwood

Things got wet and wacky in Division B. With storms in the area over the weekend, Elmwood and Ashland agreed to push their game back to 10 p.m. Saturday. With tons of fog overhead, the Expos were dominant in an 18-0 five-inning win that ended just after midnight. Manager Tom Sauve said playing after midnight was a first, but it was a great game to clear the postseason jitters.

“We have a bunch of young guys on our team, so any time you can go into a tournament with some nerves and perform right out of the gate and do well, that bodes well for the rest of the weekend,” Sauve said. “That really showed [in the second game].”

Kyle Trainor led off the first with a double off the wall that simply got Elmwood going.

On the mound, Brecken Ponath kept his great season going into the postseason with four shutout innings. Sauve said he initially was worried about pitching depth, but after Tyler Churchill pitched great in a tune-up game a week prior and Eli Ponath was cleared to return from a knee injury, his confidence was back.

“Brecken was in cruise control from the very beginning,” Sauve said. “We were kind of wondering if we were going to have to use Brecken on Sunday, that’s why we pulled him out after four innings.”

With their heads and the sky both clear from clouds, Mason Dado paved the way with seven shutout innings in a 5-0 win over Whittlesey. Eli Ponath tossed the final two innings in his return, striking out four.

Sauve said the stat that bodes well for his Expos was the zero errors over two games. The State Finals features league teams in four of the eight bracket slots (Elmwood, Ellsworth, Osceola and New Richmond), so they will have to be ready to go if they want to avenge last year’s championship game loss to Osceola.

“It’s not only familiar faces from our league, but there are some teams that we’ve played also in the last couple years,” Sauve said. “The recipe for us is the same that it always is. It’s going to be good pitching, good defense.”

Ellsworth

Ellsworth also battled the rain and schedule changes, but the offense took care of business in an 11-4 win over Augusta and a 16-1 win over Medford in Augusta.

“We had guys hitting balls all over the field,” Manager Jeremiah Paulson said, “working walks, hustling balls out.”

Urban Broadway tossed a nine-inning complete game against Augusta. In game two, James Georgakas got the start with six innings pitched. In the fourth inning, Evan Beissel made a diving catch in right field with the bases loaded and two outs to save multiple runs and preserve a 3-1 lead. That was where the game flipped on its head, with the Hubbers riding the momentum to a 12-run fourth inning that featured a Kasey Bass grand slam.

The Division B Finals are in Augusta, so Ellsworth will have the benefit of returning to the same field they played on a weekend ago.

“You get a little bit of familiarity with the field,” Paulson said. “I’m sure as a hitter it’s going to help a little bit because now we’ve gotten at-bats in that environment.”

Although Paulson said Augusta has a great facility, it is still nice to know exactly how the ball will play on the surface.

He said all the teams that made the final bracket are playing their best ball. To win it all, they will have to do the same.

“We’re going to have to do the same things that have served us well,” Paulson said. “We have to find a way to get through 27 innings. Do we have enough arms? Do we have enough in the tank to get through 27 innings?”

The Hubbers went through a rebuilding phase for a few years before returning to the State Finals last year. Paulson wants his squad to take another step after the first-round exit at the hands of Elmwood a year ago.

Plum City

Plum City did not make it through to the final bracket, splitting its pool 1-1 in Rib Lake. The Blues beat Bloomer in a 12-0 laugher in seven innings. Connor Ducklow tossed a great game, and the hitting was great all-around.

The Blues could not get it done against Rib Lake to advance, losing 5-3.

With a young, largely inexperienced team, the Blues have high hopes in the coming years. Getting a dominant playoff win could ignite that fire.

Bay City

Bay City also split its games in Abbotsford, falling short of finals qualification. The Bombers lost 8-3 to Abbotsford before taking down Bangor 5-1.

The team played solidly, but it was not enough to take down the hosts.