July 13, 2012 at 3:22 p.m.
STATE-BOUND!
Wild comeback puts Rhinelander in state Little League tournament
STATE-BOUND!
The Hodags trailed Antigo 13-0 after a rough first inning, but clawed back into the contest on the strength of eight home runs and 17 hits to storm back to an 18-15 victory at Doepke Park in Wausau.
The loss eliminated Antigo (3-2) from the double-elimination tournament. The Hodags finished the tournament undefeated (4-0).
Rhinelander earned a 5-4 victory over Antigo on Tuesday, relegating the Stallions to the losers bracket. They defeated Merrill Wednesday to earn a rematch with the Hodags. Antigo needed a win Thursday to force a winner-take-all championship game Friday.
"It's absolutely amazing," Hodag manager Jason DeMeyer said. "These kids have worked so hard to get here and they just proved themselves tonight - how good they really are, being down 13-0 and coming back to beat a team like Antigo."
The game could not have started much worse for Rhinelander, which went three up and three down in the top of the first and then proceeded to let the first 15 Antigo batters reach base in the bottom of the first. Starting pitcher Easton Senoraske faced nine batters, but only retired one, thanks to a play at the plate.
Brad Quade came on in relief and allowed the first six runners he faced to reach before getting a ground out and a strikeout to finally end the inning.
After a brief pep talk between innings, the Hodags fought back in a big way.
Jake Godin started the second inning with single and Bradley Comer, the younger brother of Rhinelander High School baseball standout and Minnesota-Duluth recruit Kyle Comer, jacked a two-run home run deep to right center.
Tate Spencer followed with a homer of his own. Three batters later, following a Logan Freund walk, Alec Modrow belted the team's third homer of the inning, a two-run shot that barely cleared the fence in straight away center.
Jacob DeMeyer then singled, Reeve Craig walked and Quade singled, scoring DeMeyer after the ball was misplayed in the outfield. Two batters later, Comer hit a blast to deep left center for his second home run of the inning and 20th of the season.
Suddenly, a 13-0 deficit was trimmed to 13-9.
"Everyone had their heads down," Spencer said of the team's mood after the first inning. "I didn't really think we were going to win, but once we started getting runs, I knew we were going to come back.
"It seems like once we start hitting good, we start lifting our heads back up."
"Lifting our heads back up and it gets us pumped up," Quade added.
Craig hit a two-out, two-run homer in the third to trim the lead to 13-11. Antigo plated one run in the bottom of the third after it appeared that Freund made a diving catch in center field to end the inning. All three Antigo coaches left the dugout to argue the call. The four-man umpire crew conferred and, after a couple of minutes, overturned the call. They deemed that Freund trapped that ball and that the baserunner on second was entitled to score.
Undaunted, the Hodags fought back in the fourth. Godin led off the inning with a solo home run, compelling Antigo to change pitchers. Comer and Spencer were hit by pitches in back-to-back plate appearances.
Freund made Antigo pay for those mistakes two batters later, crushing a three-run shot to left-center, giving Rhinelander its first lead of the game at 15-14. Owen White followed with a ground-rule double and scored on a DeMeyer double to put Rhinelander ahead 16-14.
"They love baseball and they like to win," Jason DeMeyer said of his team. "They worked hard for it and proved themselves tonight."
Antigo plated one run in the bottom of the fourth and the Hodags left the bases loaded without scoring in the fifth.
Comer took the hill in the bottom of the fifth. He fell behind 3-0 to the first batter he faced, but came back to get a strikeout. He worked around a two-out walk to strike out the side.
Craig hit his second home run of the game to give the Hodags insurance in the top of the sixth. Quade followed with a single and scored two batters later on a Comer fielder's choice to the shortstop. It was Comer's sixth RBI of the game.
Antigo drew a two-out walk and followed with a single in its final at-bat, but Comer induced a flyout to center and the Hodags' celebration began. The team converged into one joyous pile on the left side of the infield.
"These kids are absolutely amazing," Jason DeMeyer said. "They are so much fun; there's so much dedication. Ultimately, they are still 12 years old and it still shows up on the field every once in a while, but they are 12-year-old kids that love to play ball and have fun."
The team, meanwhile, checked the two biggest goals off its list by reaching state and knocking Antigo out in the process.
"That was the goal they set two years ago when they lost to Antigo (at the 10-year-old level)," Jason DeMeyer said. "Antigo had went to state, knocked us out. They knew to get to state, they were going to have to beat Antigo twice and they did it."
Said Spencer, "It feels good that we made it to state and beat Antigo. We've been wanting to do that since we were 10."
The state Little League tournament will begin July 21 in Eau Claire. DeMeyer didn't know the last time a 12-year-old Rhinelander Little League team went to state, but said it's been a while.
The team expects a challenge when it gets to Eau Claire.
"Our goal was to get there, let the boys play the best they can. Win or lose it's great for them," Jason DeMeyer said.
Spencer agreed.
"It's going to be a challenge definitely, but we'll try our hardest and hope to win," he said.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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