It doesn’t get much bigger than this for the Eau Claire Bears. They have three huge Chippewa River Baseball League (CRBL) games this week. Win all three and they are the South Division champions.
Currently sitting at 14-3 and in second place in the South Division, 1.5 games behind the first-place Osseo Merchants, a win against Osseo on Wednesday night, followed by a sweep of the Eau Claire Cavaliers in a double header on Sunday afternoon, would put the Bears in first place.
First pitch in Wednesday’s game at Jon Soiney Memorial Field is set for 7 p.m., while Sunday’s epic clash with the Cavaliers begins at 12:30 p.m. at Altoona’s Cinder City Park. The two squads will face off in a double header, both set for seven innings.
Winners of nine-games in a row, the Bears hope to best the Merchants, who are on their own hot winning streak, having been victorious on the diamond for 12 consecutive games now. Osseo currently is sporting a 16-2 CRBL South Division record.
With a week to prepare for Osseo following last Wednesday’s 11-5 thumping of the Augusta Athletics, the Bears have been concentrating on a few key things for these all-important games.
“We will just continue to work on little things that can be the difference between winning and losing ball games,” Bears manager Blake Johnson told the Leader-Telegram Monday afternoon about his team’s preparations for the upcoming three games.
Johnson noted that “Osseo is a really good ball club and they have been the standard in the South for a long time now. They play good defense, always have good pitching and are always good at the plate.”
Countering those positives of the Merchants, though, is a solid Bears team that doesn’t back down from anyone.
“Our strength this year, I would say, has been our offense so if we can keep that going and get some big hits. I like our chances,” Johnson said, adding that obviously “this game is very important. We have an opportunity this week to clinch the division for the first time in a long time. And to do that we have to win three ball games against two very good opponents. So Wednesday against Osseo would be a good start to an exciting week of ball for us.”
In preparing for both the Bears on Sunday and their Wednesday night opponent, the Eau Claire Riverman, Cavaliers field manager Ryan Bembnister said his squad will be working on several key things.
“We will work on some hitting, work on some defense in getting ready for Wednesday’s game,” Bembnister said in a telephone interview with the Leader-Telegram late Monday afternoon, noting that “If we win Wednesday against the Rivermen, we clinch a playoff berth.”
As for the Bears, Bembnister knows they will bring their A-game to Carson Park on Sunday and he plans to have his Cavs ready for two exciting games.
“When we play them, it’s always a fun set of games,” Bembnister said.
Following Sunday’s slate of games, the Cavaliers are 4.5 games behind the Merchants and can’t win the Division, but can be a spoiler for the Bears, if the Bears do, indeed beat Osseo on Wednesday evening. In the North Division, the Tilden Tigers maintain their 5.5-game lead over the Cadott Red Sox for first place.
Results from Sunday’s full slate of CRBL games were Tilden Tigers 15, Augusta 3; Eau Claire Cavaliers 5, Chippewa Falls 0; the Eau Claire Rivermen 6, Jim Falls Sturgeons 1 (same score in second game of a doubleheader); Tilden 16, Augusta 4; Chippewa Falls 3, Eau Claire Cavaliers 0; and the Cadott Red Sox 16, Bloomer Woodticks 0.
With their sweep of the Sturgeons Sunday afternoon, the Rivermen are currently in fourth place in the CRBL’s South Division with an 8-10 record and Eau Claire player/manager Andy Niese said his team’s level of play against Jim Falls may have been their best effort of the season.
“Up to this point, it was likely the best overall day of baseball we have had this season,” Niese told the Leader-Telegram Monday afternoon. “In each victory, we had excellent, complete game pitching performances from two veterans — Tyler Gray in Game 1 and Jesse Urbanek in Game 2.”
Committing no errors during the entirety of both games against Jim Falls also was impressive to Niese and helped benefit the team in their sweep.
“Defensively, we played errorless defense throughout the 14 innings of baseball, and we had some clutch, RBI hits in each game to secure a victory. Game 2 was a little more stressful, as we were down 1-0 going into the bottom of the 6th inning before scoring 6 runs on the strength of some big hits from James Davis (RBI double) and Sawyer Sturz (two-run single), as well as a game changing, three-run homer from Blake Loegering,” Niese said.
As for his team’s focus for Wednesday’s 7 p.m. game against the Cavaliers at Carson Park and Sunday’s game against the Beef River Bullfrogs, Niese said the answer is basically simple and actually prompts a three-fold response.
“Our focus this week will be to keep our momentum, improved play, and positive vibes going from Sunday’s two wins,” Niese said.
First pitch for Sunday’s Rivermen/Bullfrogs game is set for 12:30 p.m. at Fairfax Field.
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