Rice Lake American Legion baseball back on the field this summer

Rice Lake Post 87 American Legion baseball is back on the diamond this summer after a number of years without a sanctioned legion team.

Post 87 started play in mid-June has a schedule of more than 20 games. Later this month Rice Lake will compete in the Wisconsin American Legion AA Regional tournament.

"We’re just trying to give the kids an opportunity to have a little more summer baseball, especially with the men’s leagues around here slowly losing teams," said Steve Fisher.

According to Wisconsin American Legion Baseball records, Rice Lake last had an official legion team in 2015.

Post 87 is a mixture of kids that played both at the varsity and junior varsity levels during the high school season.

"It’s nice to see kids mixing out there — all different ages and levels — and getting better," Fisher said.

Rice Lake has one more home game July 23 at the baseball field at UW-Eau Claire — Barron County. The region one Class AA tournament is July 26-30 at River Falls with Rice Lake, Altoona, Menomonie, New Richmond and River Falls competing.

Fisher said the team is a few games above .500 on the season but the main focus has been getting kids more playing time and showing improvement throughout the summer.

"We're trying to keep it fun but we’re instructing them and they’re getting better," he said. "They’re getting their opportunities that maybe they didn’t during the school year. That’s the main thing, try to have fun and keep getting better."