GRAND CHUTE – This was not on Eau Claire North coach Bob Johnson’s radar on how his team’s WIAA Division 1 state quarterfinal at Time Warner Cable Field at Fox Cities Stadium.

The Huskies scored seven runs on two hits in the first inning and plated 10 more in the fifth to salt away an 18-2 5-inning victory over Milwaukee Riverside Tuesday.

“We ran a lot of scenarios over in our minds before this game and I don’t think any of them included a seven-run first inning,” North coach Bob Johnson said. “We’re ready for Game 2.”

 The win gives the Huskies (20-4) a spot in the first WIAA Division 1 semifinal game tonight against Wilmot Union, which is scheduled to start around 6.

North got some help with the seven in the first inning on three errors that would have minimized the damage.

“We preached all season making the simple plays,” Riverside coach Matt Parlier said. “In the first inning we had a chance to make a lot of those plays in the first inning and we didn’t.  When you give a team six outs in the first inning, you put yourself behind the eight ball.”

Elisha Roundtree did come on and deliver two shutout innings for Riverside (17-13), but the Tigers were in too deep of a hole.

The highlight of the offensive barrage was Tyler Hermann’s two-run home run in the middle of the 10-run fifth inning.

“When you get to the state tournament, you don’t think of the big inning,” Johnson said. “You think of small ball and moving the runner over and playing for one run an inning.

“The big innings were a result of just quality approaches at the plate and good swings.”

The big first inning let Johnson give Matt Prosek and easy time to start the game, as he was relieved after just an inning of work for Jordan Dickerson.

While tonight’s semifinal starter is undecided, Johnson has plenty of options.

“The opportunity certainly presented itself and we are here to play for three days,” Johnson said. “That seemed like the right decision to make and right now we have all of our pitchers ready to roll.”

FULL GAME STATS