Spooner Cardinals 16 Tony Hayshakers 8

            Spooner opened the 2026 season at home on Sunday with a win over the visiting Tony Hayshakers in a non-league contest. The game was each team’s opener for the season and there was plenty of rust to knock off on both sides.

            Trevor Brimblecom got the start pitching and tossed two scoreless innings, struck out three and only allowed one hit. Brimblecom will likely be shouldering much of the pitching workload again in 2026 for the team. Jesse Morales and Nick Webster both pitched two innings apiece with each allowing three runs (five of them unearned) over their four combined innings. Auston Sigfrids ended up pitching the final three innings to earn the win in relief.

            Offensively, the Cardinals had a decent showing by belting four doubles over eight total hits, but were beneficiaries of 15 walks and 3 hit batters enroute to the win. Spooner scored the first run of the season in the first inning when Haiken Meier scored on a passed ball, otherwise the bats were pretty quiet for the first two innings. The Cardinals came through with an 11 run third inning to blow the game open after many walks issued by the Hayshakers pitching staff. Highlights for the big third inning include a Trayden Wilson bases loaded triple on a sharp line drive to left field and a double to right center from Zach Rombach that narrowly missed being a home run.

Despite the offense giving the team a large cushion, Spooner ultimately allowed Tony to work their way back under the 10 run deficit twice in the sixth and eighth innings. Uncharacteristically, Spooner committed four defensive errors and two huge base running blunders to cost themselves extra outs defensively and chances to score on the offensive side.

Spooner was led by Nick Webster and Zach Rombach tallying two hits apiece, with Webster reaching base five times total (two HBP and a walk). Wilson’s line drive in the third was another big hit and Jackson Lucius, Sigfrids, and Haiken Meier each adding another hit. All in all, it was a good opening game with a solid crowd despite the weather being cool and breezy.

Looking ahead for 2026. Nick Webster completed his junior season of college baseball (UW Stout) and was the team’s starting third baseman. Zach Rombach was on the UW River Falls baseball team and gained valuable experience being around top level D3 baseball. Trayden Wilson competed with the UW Eau Claire club baseball team and looks to have taken another step forward offensively. The team will be managed by player/coach Sam Holden in his 19^th season on the team and lean on other veteran players like Trevor Brimblecom, Josh Davidson and Jeremy Bloomquist to have another successful season. Spooner features many young players that will hope to continue the Cardinals tradition over the coming years!

            Spooner opens league play on Saturday May 23^rd when they face the Haugen Knights at 1:00 from the Haugen Ball Park. The Cardinals schedule has them on the road for the first month of the league season. The Independent League will consist of the same five teams for the 2026 season (Brill, Cumberland, Haugen, Hayward and Spooner) as it always shapes up to be one of the most competitive baseball leagues from top to bottom in the WBA. Playoff weekends will be August 7-9 and hosted (tentatively) by Chippewa Falls, Haugen, River Falls and Wisconsin Rapids. The WBA Finals will be hosted by Wisconsin Rapids august 14-16.

The Spooner Cardinals 2026 season is set to kick off on Sunday May 17th with a home game against the Tony Hayshakers at 1:00 pm (non-league contest). The team will feature many of the same faces along with some young newcomers that hope to keep the Cardinals tradition alive and well. The full schedule will be posted on the schedules tab soon.

THIS WILL BE THE FINAL YEAR OF THE CURRENT SPOONER CARDINALS WEBSITE!!! (The webhosting platform is being discontinued at the end of August 2026).