July 26, 2011 at 10:51 a.m.
End of the road
Rebels' season ends at regionals
End of the road
By Jonathan Bailey-
Facing elimination for the second straight game in the four-team, double elimination style tournament, which took place in Rhinelander, the Rebels brought the go-ahead run to the plate with no outs in the bottom of the seventh inning, but three straight strikeouts ended their season and allowed Merrill to live to see another day with a 4-2 victory.
"It wasn't for a lack of effort," Rebels' manager Dan Huhnstock said about the disappointing end to the season. "The guys really played hard today and all season. We fell just short of our goal and that happens."
Rhinelander put itself in a precarious situation from the get-go this past weekend, losing to Antigo 5-3 Friday night. With the loss, the Rebels went into the loser's bracket, where they would have had to win four straight games to move on to state. They got one victory against Minocqua, winning 8-3, but couldn't get past Merrill to set-up a Sunday rematch with Antigo.
Last year, on the Rebels' road to the state title, they also lost their first game in regional competition, but managed to force a decisive game against Merrill. Despite losing, Rhinelander still advanced to state as Merrill was an automatic qualifier as the host of the competition.
It was about missed opportunities that put the Rebels into the must-win situation this year. Against Antigo, they stranded 11 runners on base, which included leaving the bases juiced in the first and the fifth innings. The struggles to get the clutch hit continued into Saturday's games. In the two games combined, they left 16 on base, 13 coming against Mincoqua.
"That's the ball game sometimes," Huhnstock said on stranding runners. "We got the table set and just couldn't get it cleared. We just weren't able to come up with a lot real good clutch hits in this tournament and left too many runners on base. We pitched well. We played defense pretty well. We just couldn't come up with the clutch hits when we needed them."
Rhinelander struck first for one run in the first inning against Antigo Friday, but squandered an opportunity to take a big lead. It got only the lone run despite having the bases loaded with nobody out. The Typhoons capitalized on the momentum of getting out of the jam with little damage, tying the game in the bottom of the inning.
The game remained tied until the bottom of the fourth when Antigo strung together three straight hits off of Rebels' starter Troy White to take a 2-1 lead. White then lost command of the strike zone, walking a number of batters, one of which was with the bases loaded to bring the deficit to 3-1. The Typhoons added insurance runs in both the fifth and six to push their lead to 5-1.
Rhinelander, however, didn't go away quietly in the seventh. Joe Zuiker hit a one-out, two-run home run to make it a 5-3 game. After Ryan Morris flew out to warning track for the second out, White walked to bring the tying run to the plate in the form of pinch hitter Brandyn Dahlquist. That would be as close as the Rebels got as Dahlquist struck out to end the game.
White (2-4) picked up the loss, allowing four runs, three earned, in five innings on the mound. He gave up eight hits, struck out eight and walked three batters. Antigo's Riley Dahms notched the victory in a gutsy 139-pitch effort. He scattered five hits, seven walks and two hit batters over the seven innings.
Facing elimination a day later against Minocqua, Rhinelander didn't waste any time taking a lead, scoring three runs in the top of the first inning. Ryan Morris had a two-run double down the third base line and White added an RBI on an infield single. Kyle Comer staked the Rebels to a 4-0 lead in the top of the third with a solo shot.
Minocqua, however, put up a fight in the bottom of the inning, scoring three runs off of starter Schmidt to make it a game again. Schmidt stranded the bases loaded after allowing the three runs to preserve a narrow 4-3 margin. Rhinelander didn't waste time getting momentum back on its side, scoring two runs in the top of the next inning to make it 6-3.
The Rebels added insurance runs in both the fifth and sixth innings in support of Schmidt, who cruised through the 89ers lineup after the third inning hiccup. Schmidt (6-1) picked up his team-best sixth win of the season, allowing three runs, all earned, in seven innings. He gave up six hits and struck out nine.
"Nate came up real big for us (Saturday) and all season," Huhnstock said. "After not pitching much in the spring he has really done a heck of a job for us all summer long. We battled a Minocqua team that played us really tough and came out with a nice win in that game."
Morris led the Rebels at the plate, going 3-for-5 with three doubles and three RBIs. White, Comer, Dan Kellen and Micah Baumgartner all had two hits apiece in the Rebels' 13-hit attack.
Thirty-minutes later, Rhinelander was back in action, this time against longtime rival Merrill. The Rebels fell behind early in the must-win game, allowing a single run to come across to score in the top of the first, but managed to bounce back with a pair in the bottom of the inning on a Kellen RBI double that just missed clearing the fence and a Comer RBI fielder's choice groundout.
Merrill responded in the top of the third by putting a three-spot on the board, the big blow being a two-run double by Luke Golisch. Golisch, who advance to third on a wild pitch, later scored on a Kyle Kubichek single to make it 4-2. Merrill's starting pitcher Kyle Rajek took over from there, retiring at one point 16 straight Rebel batters.
Still trailing by two, Rhinelander looked to be in business in the bottom of the seventh. Comer began the inning by getting hit by a pitch and Zuiker followed it up with a single, only the third hit of the game for the Rebels. Morris was ahead of the count 3-0, but Rajek came all the way back to strike him out. He followed that up with strikeouts of White and Baumgartner to dash the dreams of the Rebels.
"We're a good fastball hitting team and (Rajek) didn't have an exceptional fastball," Huhnstock said. "He did have a little bit of a curve and a little bit of a changeup, kept us off balance. They were the better team (Saturday). I am not going to say they were the better team overall, but they were the better team (Saturday) and that is what matters."
Comer (1-2) picked up the tough-luck loss despite pitching one of his best games of the summer. He allowed the four runs, only three of which were earned, over seven innings. He gave up only five hits and struck out 10 batters.
Entering the regional tournament, Rhinelander was a combined 11-0 against the three teams, counting both spring and summer games. It was 8-0 against Merrill and Antigo. Antigo defeated Merrill 4-2 Sunday to advance to state.
Saturday's loss to Merrill ended the Rhinelander careers of two players and possibly three more. Kellen and Baumgartner played their final game in a Rhinelander uniform, while White, Schmidt and Henkel can elect to return to the Rebels next summer if they choose due to when their birthday falls. The five seniors have accomplished quite a bit while at Rhinelander.
"I think they have to be one of the winningest classes between legion and high school ball that we've had in a long, long time, maybe in history," Huhnstock said. "Their leadership will be sorely missed. I just hope the younger guys are ready to step up and fill their shoes."
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