Last week, Todd Lasher tied a CRBL record and on Sunday he one upped himself by shattering it. And now the Eau Claire Bears veteran outfielder stands alone in the League’s history books.
During the Bears 9-1 rout of the Eau Claire Rivermen at Fairfax Field Sunday, Lasher became the Chippewa River Baseball League’s (CRBL) all-time leader in RBIs with a single up the middle in the top of the third inning to give the Bears a 3-1 lead. Lasher then hit a two-run homer in the fifth inning with two outs to make the Bears’ lead 5-1.
Lasher now has 368 RBIs in his CRBL career. The previous record was held by Bloomer’s Scott Stuckert, who finished his 35-season Hall of Fame career with 365. This is Lasher’s 23rd season in the CRBL.
Speaking about his star outfielder, Bears field manager Blake Johnson had nothing but praise about what Lasher has brought to this team not only this season, but throughout his stellar CRBL career.
“Todd breaking the all-time RBI record was awesome for not just him, but it was cool to come together as a team this week and root for Todd to break it and everyone just did a little extra to help put him in positions to break it,” Johnson told the Leader-Telegram in an exclusive interview Monday afternoon.
The Bears field manager added that “Todd also is just a calming presence to everyone on the team; he has the most CRBL experience on the team and is always there to help guide thing in the right direction.”
Despite his Rivermen losing to the Bears, Rivermen player/manager Andy Niese, who is also a mainstay in the CRBL, said he appreciates what Lasher has brought to the League and had nothing but praise for the outfielder’s impressive career on the baseball field.
“Todd is one of the best hitters in the history of the CRBL. Throughout his career, he has remained a powerful, middle of the order bat that you always have to be careful of,” Niese told the Leader-Telegram in an exclusive interview Sunday evening.
“The Bears know how fortunate they are to have Lasher on their team, and the remainder of the league views Todd with a lot of respect,” Niese went on to say, adding that “This is Lasher’s 23rd season in the CRBL, and he is a great example to the young players in the league that if you dedicate yourself to baseball and stay motivated, you can play at a high level and help your team win ball games for a very long time.”
As far as the game between two of the city’s three CRBL teams went, it was all Bears as they upped their South Division League record to 13-3 with the victory. They continue to trail the first-place Osseo Merchants, who are currently on a 12-game win streak. Eau Claire, on an eight-game winning streak of its own, are two games behind Osseo in the division standings following this first full week of play following the All-Star break.
Chevy Tollefson got the win on the mound for the Bears, while Jesse Urbanek was credited with the loss for the Rivermen, who now drop to 6-10 in the South Division. The Rivermen are in fourth place currently, nine games behind the Merchants and 1.5 games ahead of the fifth-place Augusta Athletics.
In addition to Tollefson’s performance on the mound Sunday, two other Bears’ pitchers — Jameson Bender (two innings pitched) and Aaron Skypeck (also two innings pitched) — combined to finish the game.
The lone run for the Rivermen came in the bottom of the third inning when Brett Jensen scored on Niese’s two-out double. Lefty Jonah Mueller pitched well in relief to finish out the game for the Rivermen (IP-3.2, H-3, R-0, ER-0, BB-2, K-7).
For the Bears star stats included: Tyler Plitzner 1-4 (2 R, 2B, SB) / Josh Halling 2-5 (R, 2 RBI) / Drew Saylers 2-4 (R, 2 2B, HBP, RBI) / Jack Sandvic 2-5 (R, 2B, SB) / Lasher 3-4 (HR, 3 RBI, R) / Alex Jinkins 1-3 and Aaron Skypek 3-4 (2B, BB).
Commenting on both his squad’s victory Sunday and the team’s return to the baseball diamond earlier in the week following an almost-two week hiatus prior to and after the CRBL All-Star break, Johnson noted that his players picked up right where they left off before the extended hiatus.
“(There was) no rust. The team came ready to play Wednesday night in Strum. As we talked about as a team we were itching to get back on the field after a long break,” Johnson said.
When asked if he thought the team had improved on their strong performance during the first half of the CRBL season during its All-Star break, Johnson wasn’t exactly sure if it was an improvement of the Bears play or just a continuation of things that the squad has been doing right to rack up an impressive three-loss League record to date.
“(It’s) tough to pinpoint things we have done better,” Johnson said.” I would say it’s more of just continuing to get great pitching and everyone in the lineup is hitting the ball well right now.”
The Bears manager noted that “the key to beating the Rivermen was obviously great pitching from Chevy, but also getting an early lead was big. We scored runs in each of the first three innings.”
As for Niese, he was candid with his thoughts about how his team played Sunday against a top-notch Bears squad.
When asked what his team needed to work on this week and what could have been improved on against the Bears, Niese remarked “Frankly, everything. We played poorly against a good team and the score was indicative of that. Battling, good pitching, making routine plays and executing pitches.........we have to work on all those areas.”
With almost a week off before its next games against Jim Falls, Niese said he and his team know that the road ahead of them is difficult, to say the least.
“It won’t be easy, but six days off before our next league game will allow us to have practice on Wednesday, which will help in preparing for our doubleheader vs. Jim Falls on July 21,” Niese said.
As for the Bears, Johnson noted that his squad can’t let up now — and has no plans of doing that, either, as the CRBL South Division race reaches a heated frenzy with only a few weeks left of League play left.
“This week will be more of the same for us. We have four big games left and everything we want to accomplish this season is there for the taking,” Johnson said.
The Bears next game is Wednesday against the Augusta Athletics. First pitch at Cinder City Park is set for 7 p.m. The big game for the Bears will be a week from Wednesday when they take on the first-place Merchants at Jon Soiney Memorial Field.
In other games set for Wednesday night around the CRBL, the North Division first-place leading Tilden Tigers will take on the Cadott Red Sox at Casper Park and the Eau Claire Cavaliers will travel to Spangberg Field to take on the Beef River Bullfrogs. First pitch for both of those games is set for 7 p.m. Tilden currently has a four-game lead over both the Chippewa Falls LumberJacks and Cadott for first place in the North.
In late Sunday CRBL scores that were second games of League doubleheaders, it was the Beef River Bullfrogs 6, the Bloomer Woodticks 4 and the Merchants handled the Jim Falls Sturgeons by a final score of 6-0.
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