April 5, 2017 at 1:35 p.m.
Hodags rally in opener
DeMeyer's doubles lead RHS past Witt-Birn 5-4 in eight innings
Hodags rally in opener
Jacob DeMeyer had three hits, including a pair of late RBI doubles, as the Hodags held off a Charger rally to win 5-4 in eight innings Tuesday at Wittenberg-Birnamwood High School.
Rhinelander led 4-1 in the seventh following an RBI double by DeMeyer and a run-scoring single by Brad Comer, but the Chargers came back to tie the game in the bottom of the inning on MacLean Alwes' bases-clearing double.
Easton Senoraske came on to get the Hodags out of the jam, stranding Alwes at third. Senoraske scored what proved to be the winning run after DeMeyer doubled to left with one out in the top of the eighth.
"It was a good win. It was one of those wins you have to grind out," RHS baseball coach Joe Waksmonski said. "Give a lot of credit to Wittenberg-Birnamwood. They showed a lot of heart, a lot of character at the end there to come back."
Rhinelander took a 2-1 lead in the third when senior catcher Tyler Blomdahl - who hit a club-best seven home runs last year between high school and American Legion play - took Alwes' first offering over the fence in left center. That lead held until the seventh as starting pitcher Matt Rudolph and reliever Brad Quade kept the Chargers' offense in check.
"I thought we threw strikes today and that was the big key coming out of the scrimmage," Waksmonski said. "We need to throw strikes. Our pitchers executed. They threw strikes. Unfortunately we had a couple of funny hops on the field but I thought overall we were much improved from coming out of the scrimmage."
Rudolph, in his first baseball game since suffering an eye injury last May, was effective over four innings, scattering four hits while striking out two and walking two. One of those walks came back to bite Rudolph in the second as he put Casey Kerstner aboard with a leadoff walk. Kerstner scored two batters later on a Tyler Groshek single.
Quade faced the minimum in the fifth and sixth but ran into trouble in the seventh, plunking leadoff man Brandon Barrick. Jordan Antone and Dalton Zeinert followed with infield hits on Wittenberg's soft and slow infield to load the bases with nobody out. After Gavin Scheuer grounded into a fielder's choice to first, Alwes took a 3-2 pitch to right-center to tie the game and chase Quade from the hill.
Another infield hit moved Alwes to third with one out, but Senoraske got Ian Zeinert to strike out and Groshek to ground out to second to force extras.
"We weren't really down. We were just looking at competing for the next pitch," Waksmonski said. "We were just looking to compete and that's what we did. Easton came in did a nice job. Even he had a tough slow roller that kind of tipped off him. To his credit and, to our players' credit, we kept at it the next two at-bats and we were able to get out of that inning and get our at-bats up."
Senoraske got the rally going in the eighth, hitting a one-out single to left. He then stole second and set the stage for DeMeyer.
"Those are clutch hits there by Jacob," Waksmonski said of DeMeyer go-ahead hit in the eighth and his earlier double in the seventh. "He struggled his first two at bats but came back, made the adjustment to put the ball in play and put the ball in play hard. That was obviously key for us."
Blomdahl added a single to go along with his home run as the top four of Rhinelander's order did the bulk of the damage Tuesday. Senoraske, DeMeyer, Comer and Blomdahl were a combined 7 for 16 on the night with all five Hodag RBIs. The rest of the team was 1 for 18.
"That's kind of what we're expecting this year," Waksmonski said. "Right now, especially early on in the season, I think as all the bats - and everyone's getting used to swinging and being outside - you've got to look to the top of your lineup to be your leaders."
Senoraske struck out one and allowed one hit in 1 2/3 innings of relief to earn the win. He threw only 17 pitches, meaning he will be eligible to pitch in Rhinelander's next game Thursday at Merrill, according to newly-implemented pitch count regulations by the WIAA. Rudolph threw 65 pitches over four innings, meaning he must rest a minimum of two days. Quade threw 36 pitches and will be eligible to pitch again Thursday after observing one mandatory day of rest.
Not at a point in the season to stretch pitchers out to the maximum of 100 pitches in a day, Waksmonski said he was cognizant of the new pitch count rule, but that it didn't factor much into his managerial decisions Tuesday.
"Maybe not so much ours, but we were aware of that the opposing team, what their pitch count was," he said.
Kody Szews worked 1 2/3 innings in the loss for Wittenberg-Birnamwood. Alwes went 3-for-4 at the plate and struck out six over three innings of work.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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