The River Falls High School baseball team has had a hot streak of late as its regular season comes to a close on Tuesday, June 15. The Wildcats won three out of four games the week of June 7, splitting a double header on Friday, June 11.

The hot streak began on Tuesday, June 8 against Menomonie at home. The hitting game was working for everyone in the Wildcats’ lineup as each starter got on base at least once throughout the course of the game. Starter Keenan Mork dominated in his five innings of work against Menomonie striking out 11 batters in the game. The Wildcats scored in every inning except the second.

Thursday, June 10 theWildcats met Menomonie again on the road and won again in a lower scoring 3-2 game. Thursday’s game was a pitching duel for both the Wildcats and Menomonie as both teams couldn’t score a run in the first three innings. Menomonie did score two runs in the bottom of the fourth against Wildcats’ starter Eli Condon, and the score remained the same until the top of the seventh where the Wildcats rallied three runs to give them a victory over Menomonie for the second straight game.

Friday was a double header day at home for the Wildcats, starting their day at noon against Wausau West High School. Like Tuesday night, the Wildcats got the run game started early, scoring three runs in the top of the first. Wausau answered with a run of their own in the top of the second, but the Wildcats went on another three-run inning in the bottom of the second to extend their lead by five runs.

From there, the runs were limited from pitching on both sides. Wildcats’ starter Andrew Aderman went five innings, giving up only four hits and one earned run to Wausau. Second baseman Michael Krueger had one of his best offensive games on the year in the first game of the double header, going 2 for 3 with a walk and scoring all three times he reached base. The final score ended as an 8-3 Wildcats victory, giving them their third straight win.

The second game of the double header was against Tomah, and although the Wildcats were the first to get on the scoreboard again in this game, they were not able to maintain their lead going into the later innings. The Wildcats scored four runs in the top of the first giving them an early edge over Tomah.

The score was 4-1 going into the top of the fifth, and it was then that Tomah had a huge scoring inning of their own, posting five runs against the Wildcats. The score now read 6-4 Tomah, and the Wildcats were able to tie the game in the bottom of the fifth, but gave up one final run to Tomah giving them a 7-6 loss. Although the winning streak came to an end, the Wildcats were still able to play closely with their opponents.

The Wildcats will play their final regular season game against Superior High School Tuesday night at First National Bank of River Falls Field. First pitch is scheduled for 5 p.m. The Wildcats currently sit at 11-10 on the season and hope to finish two games above .500.

Photo by Theodore Tollefson