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Forced to play back to back games in 80 plus degree heat may have taken a tole on Highland's baseball team in the WIAA D4 Sectionals at Barneveld Tuesday.
The Cardinals followed a come from behind win over Six Rivers rival Argyle with a back and forth tussle with Rio before the Vikings held on for a 9-7 win and a berth in next week's WIAA State Tournament.
While the bats and pitching were solid for the Cardinals they could not overcome seven errors. Of the nine runs the Vikings totaled only three were earned.
Highland made the most of four hits to score their seven runs. Junior Evan Rusch followed a walk to Cardinals lead off batter Nate Robinson with blast over the right field fence for a quick 2-0 lead.
Rio took advantage of three errors in the first inning to gain a 3-2 lead, plating all three without a hit. Another error put Noah Hollander on base, poised to be knocked in by Trevor Kearney. After two innings it was 4-2 in favor of the Vikings on only one hit.
Rio added a run in the fourth on a single and an error. Trajan Prochnow singled for a 5-2 lead.
Highland tied it in the top of the fifth with three runs. Ninth hitter Adam Wolfe led off with a double and scored on a single by Nate Robinson. Austin Yager then brought the Cardinal crowd to its feet with a line drive over the right field fence for a game tying home run.
The lead was short lived as Rio came back with four runs in the bottom of the fifth. JR Linscheid fanned the first two batters of the inning as they went down looking but then hit a rough patch. He hit Mehki Haugen and Hollander then walked Kearney to load the bases. Two errors sandwiched around a single by Jacob Black helped the Vikings take a 9-5 lead.
But the Cardinals were not ready to call it a season yet and fought back once again. They pulled within two with a pair of runs in the top of the seventh on an error and three straight walks but a game ending pop up sealed it for the Vikings.
Kearney was 2x2 to lead the Vikings, Rio used three pitchers with the win going to Jacob Black who went three innings, gave up three hits, three walks and struck out three without walking a batter.
Zach Ziedler went two innings with one hit two earned runs, three walks and a strikeout. Trevor Kearney also got on the hill and worked two frames. He gave up two runs, both unearned, walked three and struck out three.
Two of Highland's four hits came from round trippers by Yager and Rusch. Robinson and Wolfe had a single and a double respectively.
Linscheid, who closed out the 9-6 win over Argyle in the first game, went five in this one. He gave up all five Rio hits with three of the nine runs off him earned. He walked five and fanned 10.
Yager got the final frame and struck out two.
Rio won the Trailways South with a 12-2 record and went 21-4 overall.
Highland was the Six Rivers West champion and finished with a 19-3 conference mark. They were 24-5 overall.
HIGHLAND BOX SCORE
Nate Robinson, c, 3-3-1
Evan Rusch, cf, 2-2-1
Austin Yager, lf-p, 3-1-1
JR Linscheid, p, 2-0-0
Ryan Minter, cr, 0-0-0
Nate Michek, 3b, 4-0-0
Mitchell Welsh, dh, 4-0-0
TJ Cool, 2b, 0-0-0
Drew Drury, 1b, 2-0-0
Alex Michek, ss, 3-0-0
Adam Wolfe, rf, 2-1-1
Totals 28-7-4
2b-Wolfe
HR-Rusch, Yager