This story is sponsored by Total Electric
By Steve Pilz
For MarshfieldAreaSports.com
WAUSAU – The Marshfield Chaparrals amateur baseball team dropped their first game of the season Sunday afternoon, losing 7-1 to the Wausau River Hawks on a sweltering afternoon at Wausau West High School.
The starting pitching was spot-on for a couple innings before the River Hawks got to Chaparrals hurler Kade Lancour in the third.
The Hawks got their first two runs off a wild pitch and an error on a steal attempt, but the big blow came after a walk to shortstop Justin Duffy and single by Jordan Huehnerfuss, when John Roberts hit a three-run homer to right-center. Wausau had a 5-0 lead.
That was more than enough for Wausau starter Dan Genrich. Genrich fell into an early rhythm and didn’t allow a hit until Noah Panzer’s single in the sixth. The only run the Chaps could muster came in the seventh when Kyle Westhuis hit a one-out single. After a strikeout, Luke Wirtz hit a ball over the right fielder’s head to plate Westhuis.
But Genrich was too much. He pitched eight innings, allowing just three hits with 11 strikeouts and just two bases on balls.
“Wausau beat us in every aspect of the game today,” Chaps player/manager Justin Rayburn said. “That’s baseball. Some days you hit it all over, other days you don’t. Their pitcher really threw a good game for them.”
Ryan Metz replaced Lancour in the fifth and held down the River Hawks for the most part, giving up single runs in the sixth and seventh in his four innings of work, his first of the season on the mound.
Roberts, Duffy and Zach Pearson all had two hits for Wausau.
The Chaps are off until Friday, June 1, when they take on the Plover Pterodactyls at 7:30 p.m. at Jack Hackman Field in Marshfield.
River Hawks 7, Chaparrals 1
Marshfield 000 000 100 – 1 4 2
Wausau 005 001 10x – 7 9 0
WP: Dan Genrich. LP: Kade Lancour.
SO: Lancour (4 inn.) 5, Ryan Metz (4 inn) 3; Genrich (8 inn.) 11, Jordan Huehnerfuss (1 inn) 1. BB: Lancour 3, Metz 1; Genrich 2.
Top hitters: M, Luke Wirtz 2B. W, John Roberts HR; Nick Stubbe HR; Justin Duffy 2B.
Records: Marshfield 2-1. Wausau not reported.