RIVER FALLS — Season-long dominance has translated to postseason success, as the River Falls Fighting Fish coasted to a pair of wins in the Wisconsin Baseball Association (WBA) playoffs to advance to the final bracket of eight teams spanning from Aug. 16-18.

The format of the playoffs splits the state’s teams into a pair of divisions, and each division has eight pools of three teams. The three teams from each pool play each other, and whoever comes out on top advances to their division’s final bracket.

The Fish were the “A” Division No. 1 seed and took down the No. 16 Everest Merchants 11-0 Friday and the No. 14 Eau Claire Cavaliers 11-1 Sunday.

Everest took down the Fish in the 2023 playoffs, and that game was at the front of the minds of some of the Fish players Friday.

“That one stung a little bit, so I know a lot of guys were a little amped up for this one,” Fish star Brian Giebel said.

Everest ended up making the championship game last year, where they would fall 7-1 to the Tilden Tigers.

The Fish have been one of the league’s favorites to win the title for years, and brought home titles in 2022 and 2020. This experience has played a role in the 29-7 season the Fish have put together.

“How good your team is shows in the big moments,” starting pitcher Jake Lindsay said. “Having that experience is definitely huge. It’s nice to know what you’re going to get.”

Getting the comfortable win to open the playoffs served as a confidence booster for a team that already has a lot of it.

“Especially since they were the ones that knocked us out last year,” Lindsay said. “So that was a really good game to start with and get the tone started.”

The story of the game was Lindsay, who has become a pitcher the Fish can rely on on a weekly basis. Lindsay shut out the Merchants over a seven-inning complete game.

“That was pretty much just Jake’s normal,” Giebel said. “He just fills it up, and he did a great job staying down in the zone.”

The Fish have compiled a 2.00 ERA over the course of the season, and Lindsay has been part of the reason for that.

At the plate, the Fish were their usual selves, bringing home 11 runs with home runs from Lucas Luedtke and Spencer Diedrich.

“They’re just on it right now, peaking at the right time,” Lindsay said. “It makes it really easy when you’re me. Just gotta basically just throw strikes and don’t lose the game at that point.”

The second game was more of the same dominance, picking up an 11-1 win over the No. 14 Eau Claire Cavaliers to advance to the final eight-team bracket. Ty Denzer blasted a grand slam and Kyle Fritz was a force on the mound in the win.

The Fish had home field advantage for the playoffs, and will continue to have that advantage, as the finals are being played in River Falls. As of Aug. 11, the finals matchups and times are still to be determined, but when they are, they will be available at wbabaseball.org.

“I don’t think there’s a team out there that can beat us on our A game, so we just gotta put our head down and take it one game at a time,” Lindsay said.

“We’ve just got to do our thing, I think,” Giebel said. “If everything comes together and we keep playing like we are, I don’t see why it wouldn’t, but there’s a lot of good teams too. And baseball’s like that, anyone can win any day.”