The Spooner Cardinals season came to a tough end after River Falls hit a pair of home runs to edge the Cardinals 3-0 in the WBA semi-finals. The Cardinals were held scoreless by a fine effort from the Fish ace lefty. A full wrote up will be released soon.

Spooner defeated the Hayward Hawks today by the score of 7-2. Jeremy Bloomquist pitched a complete game for the win! Spooner advances to the final 4 and will face the host, #1 River Falls Fighting Fish tonight at 7:00!

the game will be streamed on River Falls SPORTS on YouTube. A win would put the Cardinals in the state title game Sunday at Noon!

The #4 Spooner Cardinals will open the WBA Finals tournament against a fellow Independent League team, the #5 Hayward Hawks. Game time is set for approximately 1:00 on Saturday in River Falls. 600 Hanson Drive, River Falls, WI 54022. Hayward advanced out of their pool with a pair of one-run victories. The Hawks rode Tom Danczyk's arm to a 3-2 win over Marshfield in game one and used a five-run ninth inning to comeback and defeat the Eau Claire Bears 6-5. Spooner went 2-1 against Hayward in the regular but the fourth game will feature the highest stakes. The game will be live streamed by River Falls on Youtube (search River Falls SPORTS) and 92.3 WRLS will also carry the game on the radio.

Brill also advanced after a pair of one-run victories over the weekend and will be the #6 seed out of the 8-team field. They will face #3 WI Rapids at 10:00 on Saturday morning. There were an unprecedented amount of "upsets" this weekend as only two teams out of the top 12 (original seeds) made the finals. The final 8 teams consist of: #1 River Falls #2 Spring Valley #3 WI Rapids #4 Spooner #5 Hayward #6 Brill #7 Chippewa Falls #8 Cadott

River Falls figures to be a heavy favorite of many to win the Class A title but WI Rapids and the three Indy League teams each reached the finals last year, as well. Chippewa Falls and Cadott each have a legitimate ace that will keep them in contention for their opening round games. 

The updated brackets will be posted online at https://wbabaseball.org/ 

The Spooner Cardinals used a thrilling comeback on Sunday against the #3 seeded Osseo Merchants. Spooner dug themselves a hole in the first inning after a two-out error allowed Osseo to plate three runs off starting pitcher, Trevor Brimblecom. The bottom of the first was scoreless for Spooner, but had two runners reach base off a Carsen Stenberg single and walk to Chad Patko. Sam Holden lined out to left field and Brimblecom flew out to end the threat. Osseo tagged Brimblecom for three more runs in the second and seemingly blew the game wide open. The Cardinals made the decision to change pitchers with the third inning, which turned out to be one of the best decisions of the 2024 season. Dawson Jorczak came on for relief against the potent Merchants lineup and kept their bats from making hard contact. Jorczak went the remaining seven innings and did not allow a hit. He also retired 15 of the last 16 batters he faced. It was really a spectacular pitching effort by the young man, who will be a senior at Hayward High School this coming year. Spooner got on the scoreboard in the third inning after a two-out walk to Stenberg was followed by three straight singles by Patko, Holden (RBI) and Brimblecom. Unfortunately, a base running gaffe at third base cost the Cardinals any further chances with the bases loaded as Patko walked too far towards home when mistaking the count for ball four. The Cardinals were relatively quiet again until the sixth, when Holden lined a single to center, followed by Brimblecom's single and a hit-batter to Brandon Shutt. The next two batters were retired on a shallow fly out and strikeout to end the best Cardinals threat of the middle innings. The Cardinals were looking at a 6-1 deficit as they mounted the first part of the comeback in the seventh inning. Spooner scored three runs in the frame to get within striking distance at 6-4. Jorczak led off the inning with a single followed by Davidson with another single. Stenberg flew out to center field but Patko and Holden each singled to score runners. Brimblecom was hit by a pitch and Shutt grounded out to second base to drive home a run and put the score at 6-4. The inning knocked out the Osseo starting pitcher, who was the CRBL Pitcher of the Year. Spooner went 1-2-3 in the eighth before mounting the big ninth inning off the Merchants reliever. The inning began with Stenberg walking and Patko lining a single to center field. Sam Holden stepped to the plate and drew a walk to load the bases with no out. The wheels fell off for two more batters as Brimblecom and Shutt were each hit by a pitch to score two runs and tie the game. Nick Webster grounded out to short stop for the first out but the lead run came around to score from third base. Jorczak walked and was followed by an RBI walk to Josh Davidson to put the score 8-6, in favor of the Cardinals. Jorczak retired the lead off man before hitting the next batter to bring the Merchants tying run and massive power hitter to the plate. Jorczak worked consectutive pop-outs to end the game. The win sends the Cardinals to the WBA Finals tournament for the fourth consecutive year and sixth time in eight seasons! The official pairings will be announced on Monday evening, along with game times. All Class A games will be played at River Falls (First National Bank of River Falls Field)

The Spooner Cardinals overcame a slow start offensively to score five runs in the fourth inning to take control of the game. Prescott scored lone runs in the fifth and sixth innings but Spooner answered each time with runs of their own to build the final lead 8-2 after eight innings. Jeremy Bloomquist pitched five and one-third innings and allowed two runs on nine hits but was able to get five clutch strikeouts to end Pirate threats. Auston Sigfrids came on for relief and pitched a stellar three and two-thirds. Sigfrids was perfect by retiring all 11 batters he faced. Offensively, the Cardinals started slow but eventually slugged their way to 12 hits on the day, with mult-hit games coming from Josh Davidson, Carsen Stenberg, Nick Webster and Haiken Meier. Only one Cardinal in the starting lineup did not get a hit (Sam Holden) on the day.

Osseo drubbed Prescott later in the day 9-3, so the Spooner-Osseo game will be a winner take all scenario for a chance to return to state. Both teams are perenial contenders in the WBA year in and out.