Red Hawks outbattle Mauston, take first Coulee Conference loss

The Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau baseball team had a mixed bag of a week, enduring their first conference loss this season to Viroqua and then rebounding in non-conference play the following day to defeat Mauston.

The Red Hawks (5-3, 2-1 Coulee) were slated to take on Viroqua again on the road last Thursday, but the game was postponed due to incoming inclement weather and they will instead play early this week.

G-E-T has a string of home games coming up where they will host Westby on Thursday, Altoona on Friday and Sparta on Tuesday. All three games are slated to begin at 5 p.m.

Viroqua 5 G-E-T 2

A four-run rally right out of the gates helped power the Blackhawks (6-1, 3-0) to an important early-season win in Coulee play last Monday in Galesville.

Viroqua got things started with a bang in the top of the first, scoring four runs with a rally that included a trio of RBI singles and a pair of G-E-T errors. The Red Hawks managed to get one run back in the bottom half of the inning after Calvin Davis drew a one-out walk and Jackson Burns followed with an RBI triple.

The Blackhawks added an additional run in the top of the seventh to extend their lead to 5-1. The Red Hawks gave themselves a chance in the bottom of the seventh when they loaded the bases with two outs. Burns drew a walk that brought in a run and still left the bases loaded, but Viroqua pitcher Jack Olson induced a game-ending groundout to escape the jam and preserve the win for his team.

The Burns triple and a single by Tucker McDonah were G-E-T’s only hits on the evening. Caiden Brady gave up four runs (one earned) in five innings and Wyatt Oines allowed an unearned run in two innings of relief.

Viroqua currently sits alone in first place in the Coulee standings with the Red Hawks a game back in solo second.

G-E-T 6 Mauston 4

Adain Busch played a key role in both of G-E-T’s three-run rallies in their non-conference win against the Golden Eagles (2-5) last Tuesday in Galesville.

The Red Hawks seized a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first thanks to a Burns RBI double and Busch’s two-run double. Mauston tagged them for four runs in the top of the fourth to leapfrog ahead by one, but G-E-T took the lead for good in the bottom of the fifth with three more runs in a rally that featured Sam DeJager’s RBI double and RBI singles courtesy of both McDonah and Busch.

DeJager and Busch each had two-hit games for the Red Hawks, with the latter collecting three RBIs. Davis earned the win by surrendering one earned run and four runs total in 5 1/3 innings, and Oliver Marley registered the save with 1 2/3 scoreless innings.