By Reagan Hoverman

The River Falls Fighting Fish continue to be a class above the rest in the St. Croix Valley Baseball League.

On Sunday, Aug. 7, the Fish secured their third consecutive St. Croix Valley Baseball League Tournament championship in a 7-3 victory against the Prescott Pirates in Prescott. Fighting Fish manager Josh Eidem stated that winning the league championship gives the team momentum going into the Wisconsin Baseball Association (WBA) playous that begin this weekend.

By the time both programs reached the championship game on Sunday, both River Falls and Prescott had knocked out two other league teams en route to the title match. River Falls had defeated Osceola 2-1 and Elmwood 7-1, while Prescott defeated New Richmond 4-1 and Hudson 5-2. All games were seven innings instead of nine due to the tight schedule for the weekend tournament.

Both River Falls and Prescott entered the league tournament with the two best records throughout the regular season and as the #1 and #2 seeds respectively for the tournament. Weston Lombard took to the mound as the River Falls starter for the championship game against Prescott.

Lombard got rolling early, as he faced four batters in the top of the first inning and struck out three of them. However, in the top of the second inning, three singles by Prescott batters loaded the bases with only one out. That's when Bryan Early knocked in the first run of the game with a groundout to shortstop to give Prescott a 1-0 lead.

River Falls responded in the bottom of the second inning by scoring three runs, two of which came ou the bat of Kyle Fritz, who roped a two-RBI double ou the center field wall to take a 2-1 lead. Later in the inning, Trey Larson scored Ragan Pinnow from third

See FIGHTING FISH, Page B-3

The River Falls Fighting Fish celebrate with the 2022 St. Croix Valley Baseball League Championship trophy after defeating Prescott 7-3 in the championship game on Sunday, Aug. 7. The title was the third consecutive league title for the Fighting Fish. Photo by Reagan Hoverman

River Falls second baseman Brian Giebel crushes a ball over the left field fence for a two-run home run against the Prescott Pirates in the St. Croix Valley Baseball League championship game in Prescott on Sunday, Aug. 7. Photo by Reagan Hoverman Fighting Fish

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base with an RBI groundout to make it 3-1 River Falls.

With the game still hanging in the balance in the bottom of the fourth inning, River Falls second baseman Brian Giebel hit a two-run home run over the left field fence to jump out to a 5-1 lead over Prescott.

The Pirates added another run in the top of the sixth inning to make it 5-2, but River Falls answered with a two-run bottom of the sixth to make it a 7-2 ballgame. Prescott managed to score one run in the top of the seventh before a game-ending groundout ovcially made it a 7-3 victory for the Fighting Fish.

After River Falls retired the final Prescott batter, the Fish came running out of the dugout to begin the league championship celebration. Moments later, River Falls was presented with the ovcial St. Croix Valley Baseball League Championship trophy. Josh Eidem spoke about what winning the league title does for this season.

“It’s big for momentum, we want to feel good about how we’re playing heading into the WBA playous," Eidem said. "You get to compete under some pressure over the weekend. There was pressure in this game that you just don’t get during the league season if you don’t do some sort of postseason tournament. It’s meant to get us prepared and I feel like we did that this weekend.”

Throughout the league tournament as a whole, a lot of the teams struggled to make plays in the field – River Falls wasn't one of those teams. Ragan Pinnow’s defense at third base has been the anchor for the Fighting Fish in his first year with the team and has provided consistency at a tough defensive position.

“He’s been lights-out defensively,” Eidem said. “That’s after playing a lifetime of shortstop at the high school level. Moving over to third, he just has such smooth hands and any time a ball is pulled that way, I know it’s an out.”

Eidem spoke about not only having confi dence in his Fighting Fish but in teams from the St. Croix Valley Baseball League as a whole. Seven of the ten teams in the SCVBL made the WBA postseason tournament. The only teams that didn’t make the cut are Osceola, New Richmond and Bay City.

"It's confidence in the whole league," Ei – dem said. "We could get five or six league teams into the WBA Finals because everyone is in separate pools and because it was a tough league this year. Some of those teams around the state that only lost a game or went undefeated, they’re not any better than teams in (our) league. I think our overall depth is better and we beat up on each other a little bit.”

Although River Falls won the league championship, Prescott leadership still considered the 2022 St. Croix Valley Baseball League Tournament a success for reaching the cham- pionship game. Prescott center fielder Michael Lytle spoke about a couple of missed opportunities against River Falls that could have changed the game.

“This game in particular we had the bases loaded, basically the whole second inning we had the bases loaded and we just couldn’t get a couple of guys across,” Lytle said. “Later in this season we’ve been swinging it OK, but big hits have been kind of lacking.”

Prescott certainly could have used more pitching help in the championship game against River Falls. The Pirates will get that help for the upcoming playous, as they decid ed to add a pitcher to their roster for the WBA playous.

After the regular season is over, each play- ou team in the league can add a player to their roster from a team that didn’t qualify for the postseason. Prescott decided to add Osceola Braves pitcher Kale Hopke.

Hopke has been known as one of the best pitchers in the St. Croix Valley Baseball League and is slated to play Division 1 college baseball next spring at North Dakota State University. Lytle spoke about adding Hopke to the postseason roster.

“We’re excited about the kid we picked up,” Lytle said. “I haven’t seen him in person yet, but from what I hear, he throws hard. He’s a stud and we’re excited to have him. It’s a big pickup for us.”

Hopke sent waves throughout the SCVBL Tournament when he pitched for the Braves against River Falls in one of the first games of the annual tournament. Hopke gave up two runs to the Fish, keeping them below their season average of runs scored, both of which were scored on errors in the field. Eidem spoke about Hopke’s performance and what Prescott is adding to its roster.

“That Hopke kid was so tough,” Eidem said. “He was throwing just about 90 (mph) from the left side and you just don’t see that very often. That first time through the inning you have to make adjustments and we didn’t do that. He was just tough all game.”

Both River Falls and Prescott head into the playous with well-deserved confidence based on regular season record and success in the annual league tournament. River Falls will play at home on Friday, Aug. 12, against the Inter- wald Woodticks at 7:30 p.m. in the first round of the playous. The Prescott Pirates are slated to play the loser of that River Falls vs. Inter- wald game on Saturday, Aug. 13, at 7 p.m. in River Falls.