RIVER FALLS — Riding the wave of a 9-4 win over Wausau West to open the postseason that featured home runs from Chase Rudolph and Landon McQuade, with McQuade also going the distance on the mound, the Wildcats would match up with conference foe Eau Claire North for a ticket to Sectionals.

The Huskies emptied the tank, taking a 5-3 lead heading into the bottom of the seventh. With just three outs to make it happen, River Falls rallied, with Cayden Kroll’s two-RBI walk-off single capping off an unforgettable inning June 4 to get the job done.

After losing back-to-back conference games against the Huskies in the final week before the playoffs, the Wildcats were hungry for redemption.

“We knew how we played last week wasn’t the team we really are, and we just came back this week in practice and just battled in getting ready for this game,” Kroll said.

Coach Ryan Bishop said the Wildcats did not pitch senior Ethan Jeffers against North in the regular season because he was set to line up against the Huskies a week later in the postseason. The Wildcats also got a look at some of the top pitchers of North, giving them some intel on what to expect with Sectionals on the line.

North got on the board first, with a ground ball single to right scoring a run. River Falls answered right back in the bottom of the first, though. A leadoff walk from Rudolph was followed by a double from Kingston Quinn to tie the game. Senior Cal DuMond grounded to second base, with the defender attempting to cut down Quinn at the plate with a throw that was not in time to take a 2-1 lead before an out was recorded.

In the third, DuMond struck again by crushing a solo home run to right-center field for a 3-1 lead.

“Saw a pitch I wanted, took it away. Just let the bat do the work,” DuMond said.

North refused to yield. In the top of the fourth, a single and hit by pitch to lead off the inning were followed with a three-run shot by Cameron Buchman to retake a 4-3 lead. A sixth inning double stretched that lead to 5-3. Going scoreless in the bottom of the sixth meant River Falls had three outs to score two runs to tie and three to win in the bottom of the seventh.

Rudolph kicked things off by reaching on an error from a ground ball to second base. Quinn wasted no time either, whacking the second pitch of the at-bat to center field for a single.

“We were burning the ball all game, we knew we were going to get a breakthrough,” DuMond said.

DuMond flew out to center for the first out, but McQuade picked him up by reaching on a ground ball error to shortstop. A strikeout brought up Kroll with two outs and the bases loaded down by a pair. The first pitch was a passed ball, allowing one run to score and the runners to advance. Kroll took strike one, then a ball, fouled one off, took a second ball and fouled off a second pitch. On the sixth pitch of the at-bat, Kroll laced a hard ground ball to third base that gobbled up the defender, trickling into the outfield to score a pair and sending the Wildcats into a frenzy.

“It was exciting. I saw it go under the third baseman’s glove, and I just knew that was probably it. I was ready for the water showers,” Kroll said.

“He trusts what we’re telling him, and he trusts the process of how baseball works. You just have to scrap and battle. You know you’re going to get a bunch of off-speed pitches, and you just keep fighting and you just don’t give in,” Bishop said of Kroll.

With the way River Falls was hitting, a comeback almost felt destined, even with backs against the wall.

“We battled all game from the start. We barreled three balls in the very first inning, and we kept doing it all game for the most part. A lot of at-em’ balls, that’s the way the game goes,” Bishop said. “We told them, just keep going. It’s baseball, you just keep hitting balls hard and taking good approaches, you’re going to find some grass or hit a ball hard and they’re eventually going to have an error.”

With a team made up of about half seniors and half underclassmen, Bishop said the roster does a good job of complementing each other and being good teammates. He said at times they do not notice the variety of ages on the team because they feel like one big unit.

“We really don’t think of it as half seniors and half underclassmen. They just kind of gel together,” Bishop said.

Jeffers pitched six innings in the win and Rudolph came in and pitched a clean seventh.

River Falls’ Sectional game against No. 1 Hudson is 10 a.m. June 9 in Chippewa Falls (after press time). The teams split a pair of games during the regular season, Hudson’s lone Big Rivers Conference loss.

Elsewhere in the county, Prescott and Spring Valley saw their seasons come to an end.

Prescott beat Mondovi 6-2 June 2, booking a trip to Elk Mound a day later for the Regional Final. In the win over Mondovi, Zach Murphy pitched three innings, with two runs coming in to score. Evan Kochendorfer tossed the final four innings without allowing a run.

At the plate it was a team effort, with Jack Matzek’s three hits and four runs batted in being the highlight. The Cardinals led for the vast majority of the game.

Brody Temmers and Matzek combined for a solid day on the mound against Elk Mound, but the team’s two hits were not enough to muster up a rally, losing 4-0 to end the year.

Spring Valley was sent into battle against No. 1 seed Eau Claire Immanuel Lutheran. The Cardinals got on the board in the top of the first with run-scoring singles from Will Biggs and Kolin Dykhouse, but the Lancers would be too much to slow down offensively, winning 11-4. It was an exceptional hitting day for Spring Valley, picking up eight hits and four runs against a team with exceptional pitching.