Baseball: Thurs HR and 5 RBI plus winning pitcher as Wausau West tops Mosinee

Carson Thurs went 2 for 4 with a home run and 5 RBI plus was the winning pitcher as Wausau West beat Mosinee 14-6 on Friday in a game broadcast live on the Wausau Area Sports YouTube channel. The win was the Warriors 3rd straight this week.

West took advantage of the wildness of Mosinee starting pitcher Dane Cihlar to score three times in the 1st inning. West scored runs on a pair of hit batsmen and a bases loaded walk in the inning. The Warriors would add 4 more runs in the 2nd, including a third bases loaded hit batter in the game. Thurs would drive in his first two runs of the game with a double and Alex Kapitz would also add a sacrifice fly in the inning. The Warriors continued to build their lead with an RBI single by Joe Graveen in the 3rd and it was 8-0.

Mosinee finally got on the board in the bottom of the 4th as Noah Zebro singled to right to score Treve Stoffel while Sebastian Andersen also scored on an error on the play to make it 8-2. West would get those runs back with a two spot in the top of the 5th on an RBI single by Graveen and a run scoring fielder's choice from Thurs.

Mosinee was able to make it interesting in the 5th inning with four runs scored. Carter Fandrey, Noah Zebro, and Kaden Kolodziej each had RBI hits in the frame and cut the deficit to 10-6 after 5 innings but that was as close as Mosinee would get. West put the game out of reach with 4 runs in the 7th. Mosinee had four errors in the game and all four came in that 7th inning. West had just one hit in the inning but it was a big one as Thurs drilled a ball well over the left field fence to conclude the scoring.

In addition to his hitting exploits, Thurs pitched 4 2/3 innings and allowed 3 earned runs on 3 hits to earn his second straight win. Marshal Helke finished with 2 1/3 scoreless innings. Joe Graveen continued his hot hitting, following yesterday's 3 for 3 performance with a 3 for 4 effort with 4 runs scored and 2 RBI. Kam Blasky was 3 for 4 with 2 runs scored as well for the Warriors. Carter Fandrey was 2 for 4 for Mosinee, who are 13-8 overall, and will host Little Chute in their regular season finale on Tuesday before opening the playoffs vs. Abbotsford/Colby in a D-2 regional next Thursday. West improves to 9-14 and will travel to Marshfield for a Wisconsin Valley Conference game on Tuesday.