Baseball: Bureau Valley upset by Rockridge in regional semifinal

PRINCETON – Bureau Valley baseball coach Ryan Schisler knew his No. 4-seeded Storm were facing a hot team, No. 8 Rockridge, in a Class 2A Princeton Regional semifinal.

The Rockets had won seven of their last 10 games and upset No. 5 Princeton in a regional quarterfinal.

Bureau Valley fell behind in the first inning but kept it close until Rockridge broke up the game in the fifth inning en route to a 9-4 victory.

“They’ve been playing well,” Schisler said. “We knew they’ve been playing well throughout the end of the season. You tried to match that, and it just went their way today.

“I thought our guys battled early. We had a tight game. We had a couple things that bit us early with some mistakes, but we kept it close. I thought Bryce battled on the mound for us. Ultimately, you have to score to win, and we didn’t do that enough early to keep us in the game.”

The Rockets struck in the first inning when leadoff man Carsen Dekeyrel walked, moved to second on a single and scored on an error. Dekeyrel delivered an RBI single in the second inning.

The score remained 2-0 until Rockridge exploded for six runs in the fifth. Cullen Schwigen scored on a wild pitch then Quinten Smith hit a two-run single to right. Smith advanced to third on a single by Joey Reiff. Reiff got into a rundown between first and second, allowing Smith to score while Reiff advanced to third on the play. Wrigley Evans capped the scoring with a two-run single.

“They did some things baserunning-wise where their kids were super aggressive,” Schisler said. “They did some things at the plate where they were just trying to make contact, and they were really effective at that. Our guys didn’t necessarily respond in some situations we needed to, and that’s baseball.”

The Storm couldn’t get much going offensively against Rockridge left-handed starter Ryan Oelke, who did not allow a hit until the fourth inning.

Oelke was the winning pitcher, as he tossed six innings, allowing one unearned run on four hits with six strikeouts, one walk and one hit batter. He kept the Storm off the board until the sixth inning.

Helms and Landen Birdsley led off with back-to-back singles before Oelke induced a double play. Helms scored on an errant pickoff throw before Oelke ended the frame with a strikeout.

“He was around the plate and he was mixing his pitches,” Schisler said. “He’s a good left arm. He did a nice job.”

Bureau Valley rallied in the seventh to score three runs with the help of two walks and three errors.

The Storm, who finish the season 11-16, graduate three seniors and return the bulk of the starting lineup.

“We knew we were going to be a younger, more inexperienced team, but our guys fought throughout the season,” Schisler said. “We have a lot to build off. We get a lot of guys back. We’re excited about that, and we’ll continue to try to build the program.”

The Rockets (14-15) will play No. 6 Monmouth-Roseville (14-13) in the title game at 1 p.m. Saturday.