July 22, 2016 at 5:04 p.m.
A long way from home
Rebels fighting through loser's bracket after Day 2 of Legion regionals
A long way from home
The Rebels found themselves slogging through the loser's bracket of the four-team double elimination tournament following an 11-1 loss Wednesday night against Antigo at Athletic Park. Fortunes turned for Rhinelander with a 12-2 victory over Eagle River Thursday in an elimination game.
The results put Rhinelander in another elimination game Friday afternoon against Merrill, which concluded after deadline. If the Rebels won that game, they would face Antigo again Friday night, needing to win to force a winner-take-all championship game between the teams Saturday in Merrill.
"Every game's a battle right now," Huhnstock said.
Antigo 11, Rhinelander 1
The Typhoon got to starter Jacob DeMeyer in the first and fourth innings Wednesday as the Rebels were routed by the tournament favorites.
Antigo scored three times in the first and hung up an eight-spot in the fourth to win 11-1.
A.J. Kirsch drove in three runs for Antigo, hitting a bases-loaded fielder's choice to open the scoring in the first. He added a two-run single in the fourth, right after the Rebels removed DeMeyer from the bump in favor of Nick Spencer. Matt Winter went 3-for-3 and drove in a pair of runs out of the No. 9 spot for the Typhoon.
"They had some good at-bats," Huhnstock said. "They also had some balls that were just out of our reach. They had some Texas leaguers fall in and some balls to the right side of the infield if we were playing them to pull. The lefties were hitting balls up the middle, just out of our reach.
"That's baseball. Sometimes the ball doesn't bounce the way you think it will."
After Kirsch's first-inning fielder's choice, back-to-back hits through the right side of the infield by Jed Weix and Nick Greening gave Antigo a 3-0 lead.
While balls were finding holes for Antigo, that wasn't the case for Rhinelander. That was especially true in the fourth inning. Brad Quade singled home Tyler Blomdahl for the Rebels' lone run. After a DeMeyer walk and a Nick Spencer sacrifice, the Rebels had runners at second and third, with one out and a golden opportunity to tie the game.
Then Hunter Kirsch made a diving stab on a hard-hit ground ball to third by Brandon Hess. Kirsch made the throw to the plate to retire Quade, who tried to score on the play. Tait Spencer then lined out to shortstop Cam Noskowiak to end the threat.
"We hit balls right at people and that, you know, made it hard for us to get anything going," Huhnstock said. "We'd have two, three good at bats in a row, try to get something going and then somebody would hit a ball right at someone and just stole any momentum we thought we'd be getting."
DeMeyer walked Alex Nagel with the bases loaded and one out to make it 4-1 Antigo in the fourth and end his time on the hill. Spencer wasn't able to do much to stop the bleeding. A passed ball and A.J. Kirsch's single cleared the bases. Ryan Brauer added an RBI single later in the inning. Winter doubled to drive in two and scored on a wild pitch later in the inning.
Rhinelander 12, Eagle River 2
All the breaks that seemingly didn't go Rhinelander's way Wednesday night did on Thursday as the Rebels scored in every inning except the fifth in a 10-run rout of the Eagles.
Blomdahl's three-run home run in the sixth gave Rhinelander a 10-run cushion and Brad Comer retired the last seven batters he faced to end the game an inning early.
Comer and Blomdahl each had two-hit days at the plate and Kurt Zuiker went 3-for-4 with two RBIs. Five of Rhinelander's 11 hits in the contest went for extra bases.
"We hit the ball a little bit better today than we did yesterday," Huhnstock said. "We got good production up and down the lineup. Everyone played solid ball - no errors. We're going win more than games than not if we play that kind of ball."
Similar to the second game of a Great Northern Legion Conference doubleheader the two teams played Monday in Rhinelander - also won 12-2 by the Rebels - Eagle River made an early push but Rhinelander continued to pile up runs throughout the contest.
Rhinelander struck for three runs all with two out in the top of the first as DeMeyer was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and Nick Spencer hit an infield single that scored Blomdahl and Quade. Eagle River responded for two in the bottom of the inning on a Brad Sowinski single and a Nick Edwards ground out.
From there, it was all Rebels. Infield hits by Josh Randolph and Zuiker led to a run in the second. Quade and DeMeyer scored in the third thanks to two errors on the same play, a grounder to short by Nick Spencer. Tait Spencer plated his older brother on a double to right center and scored himself on a hit by Zuiker.
Blomdahl walked and scored on a wild pitch in the fourth before his mammoth blast in the sixth.
"We had several gappers and Blom's home run - big time stuff, at a great time to put them away," Huhnstock said. "It kept up from having to use a reliever if the pitch count got up any more than it did. It was big that we were able to shut them down and save an arm."
Comer allowed four hits, walked four and struck-out four in a 91-pitch effort and his defense helped him out on a couple of occasions. Comer fielded a ground ball back to the mound to start an inning-ending double play in the third and the Rebels executed a strike them out, throw them out double play in the fourth as Comer fanned Zach Ciran and Blomdahl threw over to first to cut down George Jackson.
"(Comer) pitched a real nice ball game, kept them off balance and the defense was really terrific for us tonight, whether it was picking a runner off of first on a strikeout, or some double play balls," Huhnstock said. "It's the way we can play ball."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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