The #2 seed Spooner Cardinals have been placed into their pool for the 2025 WBA Playoffs and will open play on Friday, August 8th against #1 (#1 overall) River Falls Fighting Fish at 8:00 pm. The loser of game 1 will face #3 seeded LaCrosse 35ers on Saturday at 4:00 pm and the winner of game 1 will face LaCrosse on Sunday at 1:00 pm.

Spooner has faced the Fighting Fish in the playoffs during the 2024 and 2022 seasons, with both games coming in the WBA Final Four round. River Falls won in 2022 in extra innings and defeated Spooner 3-0 in 2024 on their home field en route to their third title in five years. Both years, River Falls won the WBA Championship. The Cardinals will attempt to be the first Wisconsin team to beat the Fish in over a year (sometime in the 2024 season). The Fish beat Spooner in a non-league contest on July 26th by the score of 8-3. While the 2025 draw may be the biggest challenge in the WBA, Spooner knows that you have to beat them eventually to make a claim to be the best. 

The Independent League placed all four Class A teams in the playoffs as Haugen and Brill will play games in Haugen. Hayward will travel to WI Rapids. Full pool schedules are posted on the WBA Facebook page and WBA website. 

The Spooner Cardinals defeated the Hayward Hawks 8-4 in their final home game of the year to win the season series 2-1 and secure second place in the Independent League final standings. Mathematically speaking, Spooner remains alive for the Indy Championship but would need Brill to lose their final four games of the season (DH with Haugen on Saturday and DH with Cumberland on Sunday). Sooo, you're saying there's a chance?!?!

Jesse Morales pitched seven solid innings to earn the win with Nick Webster pitching the final two frames of relief. Brandon Shutt launched a bases loaded 3-run double to the right field wall in the third inning to break the game open at 4-0. The Cardinals added one run in the fourth and fifth innings and lead 6-2 through six. Hayward scored a pair of runs in the seventh when a fly ball in the twi-night sky was lost and allowed two runs to score. Otherwise, the Cardinals played pretty clean defense overall despite missing their three usual starting outfielders. Zach Rombach tallied a four hit game and four other Cardinals (Morales, Brandon Rangel, Sam Holden and Haiken Meier) had two-hit games. 

The win allows the Cardinals to finish 7-5 in league play for the second consecutive year and finish no lower than second (most likely 2nd). WBA seedings come out on Tuesday July 29th. Possible assignments include (Haugen, River Falls, Osseo, or Wisconsin Rapids). Spooner finishes their regular season with a Saturday night game in River Falls at 7:30. 

Spooner Cardinals Baseball

7/21/2025

Spooner 4 Haugen 5 (11 innings)

Spooner hosted the Haugen Knights for the second consecutive weekend and once again went into extra innings. The Cardinals sent Nick Webster to the mound for his first start of the season and the Knights scored a pair of first inning runs off three bloop singles and a throwing error. Spooner responded in the first inning with three runs of their own. The first three batters reached base and the first run scored via a sacrifice fly to right field by Sam Holden. Nick Webster doubled and Zach Rombach singled to score lone runs and take a 3-2 lead after one inning. The Cardinals added another run in the second inning after a one out walk was followed by a single from Josh Davidson. Following a strikeout, Brandon Rangel smashed a hard one-hop ball that went off the shortstops glove for an E-6 allowing the run to score. Unfortunately, that would end the scoring for Spooner the rest of the way.

Webster kept the game at 4-2 until the Knights tie the game in the seventh inning. Spooner certainly had their chances to score throughout the game but the Knights relievers did enough to end any Spooner threats. Evan Potaczek pitched the final four innings for Spooner and pitched out of jams each inning until the Knights finally broke through in the 11^th inning with the go-ahead run on a sacrifice fly. Spooner went 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 11^th.

Josh Davidson, Brandon Rangel, Nick Webster and Zach Rombach each had two hits, along with Haiken Meier adding one. Webster went seven innings, striking out six, walking three and allowing 10 hits. Potaczek took the loss with four innings, one strikeout, five walks and three hits.

Spooner 7 Cumberland 4

            Needing another win to bolster playoff seeding, the Spooner Cardinals rode the complete game arm of Trevor Brimblecom to a 7-4 victory. Spooner took the lead in the second inning when Brandon Shutt drew a lead off walk. Cody Patko singled two batters later with one out and Jackson Lucius followed up with a walk to load the bases. Haiken Meier hit a shallow fly ball to right field that allowed Shutt to score from third to take a 1-0 lead. Josh Davidson narrowly missed a line drive double to left-center which the Islanders centerfielder made a great running catch to end the inning. The Cardinals used a four run fourth inning, which started identical to the second inning with Shutt, Patko and Lucius reaching in the same fashion. Davidson stroked a single to plate two runs and Jesse Morales singled to score the third run. Two batters later Zach Rombach singled and drove Davidson home to take a 5-0 lead.

            Trevor Brimblecom mostly dominated the Islanders lineup on Sunday despite giving up four runs (only one earned run in the eighth). Cumberland scored their first run in the fifth and a pair in the sixth after several shoddy plays by the Cardinals infield. Spooner added a run in the sixth and lead 6-3 when Brimblecom sat the Islanders top of the order down 1-2-3 in the seventh. One of the few hits for Cumberland was a leadoff double in the eighth inning who came around to score after one more Spooner error allowed him to reach third. Up 6-4, Spooner needed an insurance run with the Islanders top of the order coming back around. Cody Patko stroked a double over the left fielders head and Trayden Wilson entered the game to run for Patko. Jackson Lucius laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Wilson to third. Sam Holden pinch hit for Haiken Meier and drew a four pitch walk to put runners on the corner. AJ Anderson laid down a perfect safety squeeze and the Cardinals added their insurance run. Brimblecom got the Islanders 1-2-3 again in the ninth and earned his third complete game victory on the season.

            Cody Patko had a three hit game and Rombach added two hits. Brimblecom struck out 10 batters, walked two and scattered six hits. Three of the four Islanders runs were unearned due to several mis-plays by the Spooner defense. Spooner will need to solidify these defensive miscues prior to playoff action.

The Cardinals (7-8, 6-5 Indy) will finish the regular season this weekend when they host the Hayward Hawks on Friday night at 7:30 for the final Independent League game of the season for Spooner. They will travel to River Falls on Saturday night at 7:30 for a game with the reigning WBA champions and face their former teammate (Chad Patko).

There were several notable Independent League contests on the weekend with Brill sweeping a doubleheader from the Hayward Hawks to take over the first-place spot in the league. Brill has a gauntlet of a schedule remaining due to three makeup games and will play five games between Wednesday and Sunday, with three of them being against the surging Haugen Knights (Wednesday in Haugen and a Saturday DH in Brill).

Indy League scores:

Brill 1-0 over Hayward (Sat)

Brill 8-6 over Hayward (Sat)

Haugen 10-0 over Cumberland (Sat)

Standings 7/21/25:

Brill 5-2

Hayward 6-4

Spooner 6-5

Haugen 3-6

Cumberland 3-6

Spooner 12 Haugen 11 (10 innings)

Spooner hosted the Haugen Knights on Saturday night of Rodeo Weekend and came away with a nail biting 12-11 win in 10 innings. The game was far from clean for the Cardinals as they squandered multiple leads but managed to out hit the Knights to hand them their sixth loss on the season. The Cardinals built a 4-1 lead after the first inning, which was highlighted by a two-run home run down the left field line by Sam Holden. Spooner added a pair of runs in the second inning and the lead was 6-1 after two complete. Haugen added a pair of runs in the fifth inning to cut the lead to 6-3 and then tied the game in the seventh inning. Jeremy Bloomquist pitched the first six innings and Evan Potaczek pitched three innings of relief through the ninth. Spooner added a run in the seventh inning to re-take the lead at 7-6 but Haugen pushed a run across the plate in the eighth to tie the game. Spooner scored four runs in the bottom of the eighth inning after Haugen elected to make a pitching change after the Cardinals had taken a 9-7 lead. With the game seemingly in hand at 11-7, Spooner needed just three outs to secure the win. Unfortunately, the Knights used a couple timely hits and several walks to tie the game and leave the go-ahead run on third base. Spooner had a golden opportunity to win the game in the ninth inning, when Sam Holden hit a deep fly ball to right field with runners on first and second to allow the runner to advance to third base. Narrowly missing a walk off home run by a step or two. Haugen intentionally walked the next batter to load the bases in a questionable move, given their pitcher’s control issues. Zach Rombach hit a towering fly ball to centerfield, which was about mid range into the outfield. The Spooner run tagged up at third but the Haugen outfielder made a perfect throw home and their catcher applied a tag in a very close play at home plate to end the inning still tied at 11-11. Spooner was completely dejected by the play but regrouped to keep the Knights off the bases in the tenth inning and set the stage for the bottom of the tenth. Trevor Brimblecom led off the 10^th inning with a hit by pitch to the lower leg. Jackson Lucius pinch ran for Brimblecom and stole second base on a 2-0 count. Trayden Wilson was at the plate with the bunt sign but was walked on four straight pitches. Another walk followed to Cody Patko. Josh Davidson singled to left field and Lucius scored the winning run and finally end the game.

Spooner 1 Brill 10

            Approximately 12 hours after a long game the night prior Spooner was back in action against the Brill Millers for their third matchup of the season. The teams split the first two games. Things started off impressively for the Cardinals as Josh Davidson smashed a lead off home run to left field to take a quick 1-0 lead. Unfortunately, Spooner would not get their second hit until the eighth inning and only manage another hit in the ninth. Brill brought in a “junk-baller” for the game, as they have now seen Spooner struggle to hit slow off speed pitches in the first two meetings. Jesse Morales was efficient for the first two innings as the Millers went down quietly. Brill scored four runs in the fourth inning to take a 4-1 lead and the Cardinals never regained their energy as the Millers continued to add runs later in the game to take the game 10-1.

The Cardinals (6-7, 5-4 Indy) return home to face the Haugen Knights again on Friday July 18^th at 7:30 pm. Spooner also travels to Cumberland on Sunday for a 1:00 game against the Islanders. Spooner has just three league games remaining over the final two weeks, while everyone else has four to seven games remaining.

Indy League scores:

Hayward 5-3 over Haugen (Fri)

Hayward 4-1 over Cumberland (Sat)

Cumberland 8-1 over Hayward (Sat)