April 26, 2017 at 2:42 p.m.
Hodag softball splits home GNC contests
Hodag softball splits home GNC contests
The Hodags (3-3, 3-2 Great Northern) fell to fourth in the conference standings, two games behind Mosinee, which rallied for four runs in the sixth Tuesday to defeat Antigo 4-3.
Rhinelander did get good news regarding pitcher Ali Schickert Monday, as her knee injury is not as severe as initially feared, according to the team. She could return to the lineup in early May.
Coach D.J. DeMeyer said Tuesday's loss puts the Hodags in a tough spot in the conference race, but does not kill the team's chances to end Mosinee's reign of eight straight years atop the GNC.
"I don't think we're out of it," he said. "I think Tomahawk's going to have a chance to beat Mosinee and Antigo and Medford can come up and beat them too. If Tomahawk plays like they did today (when they play) against Mosinee they have a good chance of winning, a real good chance. I think it's going to be a four-horse race and we'll try to keep plugging along."
Tomahawk 8, Rhinelander 3
Tomahawk pitcher Rachel Dallman was the star of Tuesday's game. She homered twice in the first two innings to help give the Hatchets a 7-0 lead and held the Hodags to three runs on five hits, shutting down Rhinelander after the second inning.
"Rachel really hurt us both ways," DeMeyer said. "Give her credit, she's a good ball player. She hit two home runs and (had) six RBIs. I don't know how many strikeouts she had, but she kept us off balance. We had some opportunities. We weren't able to get them in. We left some runners stranded."
Both of Dallman's blasts came with two out and on the first pitch of the at-bat. She took Stephanie Kuester deep for a two-run shot in the first and hit a grand slam in the second. Whitney Osero singled home an insurance run for the Hatchets in the sixth.
Rhinelander scored all of its runs in the second as Stephanie Kuester hit a two-run single and scored on a base knock by her twin sister, Makayla. Dallman settled in from there, retiring 13 of the next 14 batters she faced.
The Hodags' other scoring threats came in the first and the seventh. Rhinelander loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the first, but Dallman fanned Erica Counter and Hope Wissbroecker to get out of the game.
Ivy Packard and Makayla Kuester both singled to give the Hodags two on with two out in the seventh, but Lindsay Juedes popped out to end the rally.
Tomahawk tagged Stephanie Kuester for eight runs on 14 hits in the game. DeMeyer said Kuester was not 100 percent, health-wise, after tweaking her hand on a head-first slide into home plate during the first inning of Monday's win over Northland Pines.
"Steph's hand's a little bit hurt so she couldn't throw all her pitches," he said. "That probably didn't help us, but she'll be all right and we'll just keep plugging along.
"I still see us improving. We have a couple girls that are struggling now, but we'll just keep plugging along."
Rhinelander 15, Northland Pines 0
After scoring a total of 13 runs in its first four games, the RHS offense finally found some life against Great Northern Conference back marker Northland Pines.
The Hodags pounded out 12 hits, took advantage of nine walks and raced past the Eagles 15-0 in four innings Monday at Pioneer Park.
Mikayla Evenstad had three hits for Rhinelander. Counter drove in three runs, including the game-ending runs on a bases-loaded double in the fourth.
DeMeyer said his team responded after turning in what he called a "flat" effort in a 5-1 loss three days earlier at Wausau West.
"I thought the girls played
a lot better today," he said. "They just seemed to be in the game more. I don't know if it was because of prom last Saturday or something like that but Friday I didn't think we played very well. Today we played better and I'm happy."
Rhinelander also shook things up defensively, moving Lindsay Juedes back to third, where she played all of last year. Counter moved from short to second, Makayla Kuester moved from behind the plate to shortstop and freshman Ella Mullikin made her first varsity start at catcher.
The Hodags committed only one error Monday, after committing 11 in their previous two games. The gaffe occurred in the first when there was miscommunication between Counter and Makayla Kuester on a ground ball to second, but the Hodags atoned for that mistake with an inning-ending double play and the defense was flawless in the few other chances it had.
"I thought we looked really good defensively," DeMeyer said. "Yes, we had a mishap and Erica should have just stepped on second or threw it to first. I did shake up the infield a little bit, but I thought we looked good otherwise. I've got some thinking to do tonight, but it could be something we do here."
The Hodags scored a run in the first, four in the second, eight in the third and two more in the final inning to invoke the 15-run mercy rule, which allows the teams to call a game if one side has amassed a lead of 15 runs or more after the trailing team's at bat in the third inning.
Rhinelander had a quartet of two-run hits in the contest. Packard singled home a pair with a bases-loaded double in the second. Wissbroecker and Evenstad each plated two with singles in the third. Counter's double ended the contest with the bases loaded and nobody out in the fourth.
"We found holes today and we haven't been finding holes the first two weeks," DeMeyer said. "It seemed like today our grounders started finding the holes and we looked good."
Packard, Stephanie Kuester and Juedes all had two hits. Evenstad went 3-for-3 in the game, extending her hitting streak to six consecutive at-bats dating back to the Mosinee game.
"Over the winter we switched her from right to left and she worked hard at it. When we first started out batting, she wanted to go back to right," DeMeyer said of Evenstad, the team's No. 9 hitter. "She didn't feel comfortable. I told her I wanted her batting left-handed and then, all of a sudden, she starting hitting. It's starting to get easier for her, she's got her steps down and she looks really good."
The Hodags will host Lakeland Thursday at Pioneer Park.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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