By Reagan Hoverman

The River Falls Fighting Fish currently sit alone atop the St. Croix Valley Baseball League (SCVBL) standings with less than three weeks remaining in the regular season.

On Wednesday, July 13, the Fish tallied their 20th overall win of the season with a 7-1 victory at home against the Hastings Hawks and improved the overall record to 20-5, which includes a 10-1 record in SCVBL action.

The Fish’s one-loss record in league play firmly cements the River Falls program atop the standings. Prescott and Hudson appear to be the only potential challengers with less than a month remaining in the regular season as they occupy second and third place and hold 8-4 and 8-5 records respectively in league play.

While Wednesday night’s victory against Hastings wasn’t a SCVBL game, it was another chance for River Falls to continue bolstering an already objectively outstanding record. Miles Liebren got the start for the Fish and was dealing early as he retired three of the first four batters in the first inning.

Liebren allowed zero earned runs in his seven innings of work on the mound. While Liebren was locked in, the same wasn’t true for the River Falls bats. Through the first seven innings, the Fish mustered only two runs and kept the game hanging in the balance through the seventh inning.

In the top of the eighth, Hastings began the inning with a walk and then strung together multiple base hits to score its first run of the game and make it a 2-1 contest, still favoring River Falls. The Fighting Fish offense came to life in the bottom of the eighth, as River Falls recorded five hits and a walk en route to scoring five runs to all but put the game away.

A fruitless top of the ninth inning for the Hawks officially gave River Falls its 20th win of the season. After the game, player/manager Josh Eidem spoke about this iteration of the Fighting Fish and what he has seen from his guys this season.

“I think the guys are doing a good job of sharing the playing time,” Eidem said. “The team has gelled really well and the dugout feels good where guys are joking and getting along. That’s the thing you look for at this point in the season. If you get into the middle of July, the dog days, the question is ‘Are we still having fun?’ you play better if you’re having fun and that’s where we’re at.”

The 2022 iteration of the Fighting Fish has one of the deepest rosters in franchise history. Throughout the year, Eidem has said that there are enough talented guys on the River Falls roster to field two competitive teams. Because of that, players that have historically batted at the top of the lineup their entire careers are being asked to fill roles and occasionally bat in the seven, eight and nine slots.

“They’ve settled into roles and it’s a very unselfish group,” Eidem said. “We ended up getting some runs in this last inning, but we were playing for one (to win). We wanted Ragan (Pinnow) to get a hit and then we planned on laying a bunt down – guys are playing smart baseball within roles too.”

River Falls added to its already impressive lead in the SCVBL standings with a 4-3 walk-off victory against the Bay City Bombers on Friday, July 15, at First National Bank of River Falls Field. The Fish’s league record improved to 11-1 for the season, adding further distance to the gap between second-placed Prescott.

“We’re in a healthy place,” Eidem said. “Ultimately at the end, the league record gets you into that WBA (playoffs), but really we’re just looking at securing a good seed for that league tournament so we can have a bye and not have to play so many games that weekend.”

Eidem stated that thinking ahead and working for a first- round bye is something that has changed mentally over the years. It’s now more important to get a lot of the veterans on the team rest and to preserve arms than to chase trophies that ultimately don’t lead to a state title.

The stated goal for the Fish is to get a bye, preserve veteran health and young arms and then begin preparing for a deep playoff run. Part of River Falls’ quest for a #1 seed is because of Spencer Diedrich, who has been one of the best hitters on the roster this season.

Diedrich’s breakout game came against the Prescott Pirates on July 9, a 6-3 victory in which he tallied two home runs and a single. His red-hot bat has been a mainstay in the cleanup slot for the Fish this season.

“He’s pretty locked in and he’s hitting everything – fastballs, breaking balls, and he’s kind of a machine,” Eidem said. “He was a pitcher in college and is hitting his stride now as a hitter. You get a bit of that secondary career coming for townball guys and now here he is living out his high school days again as a really good hitter.”

Diedrich, Eidem and the rest of the Fighting Fish roster continue building a strong resume that will help in the bid for a #1 seed in the postseason tournament which would provide that much-needed bye to start the playoffs. That seeding will happen in the coming weeks.

The next game for the River Falls Fighting Fish is scheduled for Wednesday, July 20, at home against the Centennial Cougars. The first pitch for that contest is slated for 7:30 p.m.

Spencer Diedrich of the River Falls Fighting Fish rounds second base and heads towards third during his second home run trot of the night against the rival Prescott Pirates. Diedrich finished the game with three total hits – two home runs and a single. Photo by Reagan Hoverman

River Falls Fighting Fish rotation player Kyle Fritz takes a lead off of first base after knocking a base hit against the Prescott Pirates. Fritz and the Fish used hot bats and strong starting pitching to defeat the second-placed Pirates in an important St. Croix Valley Baseball League game. Photo by Reagan Hoverman