June 12, 2015 at 2:37 p.m.
Rebels open season with win
Zuiker's complete game propels Post 7 to 5-1 victory
Rebels open season with win
Kurt Zuiker went the distance on the hill and the Rebels got a key two-run single from Bradley Comer in a 5-1 victory over Minocqua Post 89 at the Lakeland Union High School baseball field.
Zuiker scattered five hits and struck out eight in a 127-pitch outing.
"It was a real nice team effort tonight," Rebels manager Dan Huhnstock said. "Heck of a job by Kurt Zuiker on the mound tonight. You can say enough. He worked himself out of a lot of jams, had good defense behind him and we had some timely hitting."
Minocqua had plenty of chances to get back into the game, but Zuiker and the Hodag defense continued to shut the door. The 89ers stranded 10 baserunners in the contest, nine of which were left in scoring position.
Rhinelander opened the scoring in the third inning as Scott Sedlacek was hit by a pitch to lead off the frame. He moved to second on a Alec Modrow sacrifice bunt and scored on a double to left by Jacob DeMeyer. DeMeyer later scored on a two-out error.
Minocqua answered for a run in the fourth as Nick Peterson walked and scored on a one-out double to left by Bradley Holmer. Nick Spencer attempted to make a diving catch on the play, but was unable to come up with the sinking liner.
Minocqua had runners at second and third following Holmer's hit, but Zuiker struck out Drew Zeller and got T.J. Ullius to ground out to third to get out of the inning.
DeMeyer bunted his way on in the fifth, stole second, moved to third on an error and scored on a grounder by Zuiker. The Rebels tacked on a pair of insurance runs in the sixth as Comer, a sophomore-to-be, singled home Bryce Young and Matt Rudolph, who reached on singles earlier in the inning.
"With the infield drawn in, he put it in play nice and drove in a couple of very important runs for us," Huhnstock said of Comer's timely hit.
Rhinelander has only six hits in the game, but scored in three of the four innings they recorded a hit.
"We got hits when we needed to get hits," Huhnstock said. "We were able to move runners around nicely and get them in scoring position and put them across the plate."
Meanwhile Zuiker persevered on the hill as the night progressed. He passed the 100-pitch mark during his third batter of the sixth inning. Zuiker had thrown 108 pitches through six innings, but insisted on finishing the game.
"He kept on telling me he wanted to finish it," Huhnstock said. "We had Brandon Hess ready to go and he gutted it out and finished it out for us, which just tells you a little bit about his character. He is a hard worker so he's in real good physical shape. I'm sure he'll rebound nicely."
While there were a fair amount of Rhinelander High School varsity players in the lineup Thursday, there were some new faces. Tyler Blomdahl handled the catching duties, Alec Modrow started in right and Bryce Young started at first. With Zuiker, who was almost exclusively a centerfielder this spring, on the hill DeMeyer saw time in centerfield. Comer, Zach Johnston and Brandon Hess came off the bench later in the contest.
"That's Legion ball," Huhnstock said. "Lots of guys are going to be put in different positions and it's just real good experience for them to learn how to play the whole game."
The Rebels' game at Mosinee Thursday was rained out. The team was scheduled to play at Merrill Friday in a game that concluded after deadline. Post 7 holds its first home game of the summer at 7 p.m. Monday against Medford.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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