Amateur Baseball: River Falls looks to maintain lead in SCVBL (6 photos)

The River Falls Fighting Fish will try to stay atop the St. Croix Valley Baseball League standings when they host the Spring Valley Hawks for UW-River Falls Night Friday at 7:30 p.m. at First National Bank of River Falls Field.

The Fish take a SCVBL record of 9-1 into the contest after splitting a pair of road games with the Hudson River Rats and Plum City Blues last weekend. The Fish lost to the River Rats 3-1 Saturday before beating the Blues 10-2 Sunday.

River Falls’ latest outing ended on a sour note Wednesday night when the Stillwater Loggers scored four runs in the top of the ninth to steal an 8-7 victory from the Fish in a non-league game at First National Bank of River Falls Field.

The Fish led 5-0 in the first inning but went on to make five errors in the field, leading to seven unearned runs for the Loggers, including all four in the top of the ninth. River Falls outhit Stillwater 13-11 but left eight runners on base.

Lucas Luedtke doubled in the Fish’s first run in the bottom of the first inning, and after moving to third on a base hit by Andy Metcalf, scored on a passed ball. Metcalf scored from second on a single by Chase McQuade to make it a 3-0 game, and Cayden Mueller singled in McQuade, before Mueller scored on a sac fly by Jaxin Larson.

Stillwater got a solo homer and an unearned run in the second to cut the Fish lead to 5-2, before an RBI single by Metcalf in the bottom of the second made it a 6-3 game. The teams traded runs in the fifth, with Stillwater scoring an unearned run in the top of the inning and Austin Curti hitting into an RBI fielder’s choice in the bottom half.

River Falls was three outs away from a 7-4 win in the ninth when Stillwater scored four unearned runs to take an 8-7 lead. Luedtke got a leadoff single in the bottom of the ninth, but a 3-6-3 double play and strikeout ended the game.

Henry Griffin pitched the final two innings and was tagged with the loss after allowing four unearned runs on five hits with a strikeout. Griffin’s older brother Charlie worked the first seven innings and gave up four runs, one earned, on six hits with five strikeouts and two walks.

Luedtke had four hits, including two doubles, and Mueller singled three times while Curti had two hits and two RBI and Metcalf had two hits and drove in one run.

Following Friday night’s SCVBL game against Spring Valley the Fish, now 13-6 overall, will host the Anoka Bucs in a non-league game Saturday at 7 p.m. Saturday night’s game will be preceded by a free youth clinic hosted by the Fighting Fish players from 5-6 p.m.