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Prep baseball: Rails defeat Rice Lake at home opener

bridget kelley, the leader-telegram, eau claire, wis.
·4 min read

Apr. 10—The Altoona Railroaders had a beautiful, sunny home opener Monday at Cinder City Park. Even better, they came out with an 8-4 victory over the Rice Lake Warriors.

Altoona's Keaton Camastral started on the mound at the top of the first.

Rice Lake's Jakob Kunz hit a grounder to take first base. Tanner Koltunski took a base after four balls. The Rails were able to get Tyson LPoint out, but not before Kunz was able to steal his way home, recording the first run of the game.

A pop fly from Easton Stone added another out for the Warriors, but it gave Koltunski another base closer to home, where he was able to return after a center drive from Thomas Richter.

Both Kalvin Kelsey and Aidan Drost walked, loading the bases with two outs for the Warriors.

Tayte Schommer struck out, marking three outs, sending the game to the bottom of the first with the Warriors up 2-0.

Stone was pitching for the Warriors, and first to the plate for the Rails was CJ Varsho, who walked after four balls.

Both Trent Cornell and Evan Gustafson struck out at the plate, sending Colin Boyarski to the plate with only one on the base and two out on the board. Boyarski used that pressure to hit a double deep into the outfield, sending Varsho home to add a run to the board for the Rails.

Dallen Robinson acted as a courtesy runner for Boyarski, and a single from Bennett Stokke sent Robinson home, evening the score 2-2.

Stone struck out Cameron St. John to send the game to the top of the second.

Lucas Roux hit a single on the first pitch of the inning. Kunz was back up at bat and hit a pop fly, which ultimately got both him and Roux out. The next hitter was Koltunski, who ultimately struck out, and the Warriors headed to the outfield.

Mason Lange had the first out for the Rails, followed by a bunt from Ben Keunkel that sent him to first base. With Varsho back at the plate, Stone threw a ball, a strike, and another ball before Keunkel stole second. Varsho hit a drive down the center that gave him a single base and sendt Keunkel to third. Another line drive from Cornell brought Keunkel home, giving Altoona a 3-2 lead.

In the third, the Warriors racked up three outs and one run in the third inning, courtesy of LPoint, who also pitched at the bottom of the inning. The Rails were unsuccessful in adding more points to the board, finishing the third with three outs and the score tied up 3-3.

At the top of the fourth, the first three hitters all got out before making it to first base.

With the Railroaders up to bat, a hit from Gustafson went straight to the back wall. Gustafson rounded first and went on to second, and went home on a ball off Boyarski's bat, bringing the Rails back in the lead 4-3.

Robinson once again ran for Boyarski, and after stealing second, he ran home off a beautiful fly from Stokke, bringing the score up 5-3.

Both Koltunski and LPoint hit singles for the Warriors, and a fly in the outfield got Stone out. After one strike and four balls, Thomas Richter walked to load the bases.

Kelsey had two strikes and three balls when he hit a line drive towards first that got him out, but Koltunski made it home safe, awarding the Warriors a fourth run on the scoreboard.

The Rails switched pitchers, sending Ajay Lenberg to the mound to pitch the final out for the inning, striking out Wyatt Kunesh.

The first three hitters for the Rails all got out, quickly sending the game to the sixth.

Camastral was back on the mound for the Rails, and he struck out Zach Orr at the top of the inning. He gave up a base to the Warriors, but struck out Kunz. Koltunski made contact with the ball and hit a fly to the outfield, which was caught by Varsho and sent the Rails back to the plate.

LPoint started at the bottom of the inning at the plate, but after giving up a single to Varsho and walking Cornell, the Warriors switched pitchers, sending Richter in to take his place.

Richter let Gustafson walk, and with the bases loaded, Boyarski hit what he hoped would be a single, but it didn't quite pan out, and he got out. However, Varsho did make his way across the home plate to bring the Rails even further ahead, 6-4.

Altoona's Kellen Smith made it to first base after one foul, two strikes, and four balls at the plate, loading the bases once more.

A double from Cameron St. John sent Cornell and Gustafson across the plate, bringing the score up 8-4.

It took five hitters at the top of the seventh inning. to get the final three outs the Rails needed to win, and they came out on top 8-4.

The Railroaders are back at home tomorrow, when they take on Ellsworth in their first game of conference play. The game starts at 4:30 at Cinder City Park in Altoona.