July 21, 2017 at 2:50 p.m.
Rebels use drives to stay alive
DeMeyer, Blomdahl homer as Rhinelander fends off elimination in Legion regionals
Rebels use drives to stay alive
Jacob DeMeyer and Tyler Blomdahl hit home runs in the sixth inning to break open what was a pitchers' duel up until that point and the Rebels knocked off Merrill Post 46 10-3 at Stafford Field in Day 2 of the tournament.
It was an elimination game for the Rebels, who lost 10-7 on opening night to Shawano. Things weren't going much better for Rhinelander, at least offensively, on Thursday against Merrill ace Ryan Golisch until a huge nine-run sixth broke open a scoreless tie.
"That was just beautiful to see the bats come alive like that and hitting is so contagious," Rebels manager Dan Huhnstock said of his team's response after teetering on the brink of elimination. "When you get them rolling, you know, it just seems like everyone starts hitting after that."
DeMeyer - who was shaken up following a diving catch attempt late in Wednesday's loss against Shawano - not only played Thursday, but delivered the biggest hit of the contest, taking the first pitch he saw from Golisch in the sixth into the evergreen trees that make up the batters' eye behind the center field fence.
From there, the Rebels began to tee off against Golisch, who had allowed only two hits through the first 5 1/3 innings. Brad Comer singled, Brad Quade had an infield hit and Kurt Zuiker walked to load the bases.
Comer scored on a wild pitch and, moments later, Blomdahl launched a shot over the right-center fence.
"That was really sweet to see Tyler square up on one," Huhnstock said of Blomdahl, who had been 0 for 2 with a pair of strikeouts up until that point of the contest. "Tyler had been in a little bit of a slump and that's a great way to break out of a slump."
After a Merrill error and another single, Golisch was chased from the mound. But Rhinelander kept hitting against reliever Brett Seubert. Tait Spencer greeted Seubert with an RBI double, a two-out error allowed two more runs to score and Comer capped off the big frame with an RBI single to right.
Comer finished 3 for 4 at the plate and was equally impressive on the mound, carrying a one-hit shutout into the seventh inning. He tired a bit in the final frame, allowing a base hit and three walks - all with one out - as he hit the 120-pitch limit. Zuiker came on in his first pitching appearance of the summer to close out the contest.
In all Comer allowed three runs on two hits with six strikeouts.
"You can't say enough about the job he did tonight on the mound, just unfortunate that he couldn't quite finish it and ran into the end of his pitch count," Huhnstock said. "I do believe he was finally getting a little bit tired at the end there also."
Quade, Blomdahl and Cole Spaulding each recorded two hits for Rhinelander. Blomdahl and Spaulding combined to give the Rebels an additional run in the seventh. Blomdahl singled to start the inning, moved to third on a pinch-hit single by Matt Rudolph and scored on Spaulding's groundout.
The win moved Rhinelander into an elimination game against Minocqua on Friday afternoon that concluded after deadline. The Rebels were set for a rematch with Shawano Friday night if they won that game.
Winning two games Friday would put Rhinelander in Saturday night's championship game. See RiverNewsOnline.com for the latest on the regional tournament.
Shawano 10, Rhinelander 7
Shawano Post 117 used a five-run fifth inning to rally past Rhinelander Post 7 10-7 Wednesday in the opening day of the Class AA regionals at Stafford Field.
Bryce Schickert was relieved on the mound after walking the first two batters of the fifth, but Brandon Hess allowed four hits after that as Shawano took a 8-5 lead. The Rebels got two back in the sixth, only for the Patriots to match them in the bottom of the inning following a pair of bases-loaded walks by Hess and Easton Senoraske.
Rhinelander, as a pitching staff, combined to walk 10 batters in the contest.
"Too many walks," Huhnstock said. "That was the key. A couple poorly-timed errors, but it was the walks that hurt us tonight."
Schickert allowed only two hits in four-plus innings of work but walked seven batters. All five runs charged against him reached base via the walk. Afterward Huhnstock defended the team's decision to go with the junior-to-be lefty who, until this summer, had only one career varsity start as opposed to a more seasoned commodity on the hill.
"Bryce came into the game with our lowest ERA. I had total confidence in his ability to handle to situation," he said.
In another position change - perhaps a glimpse into what the Rhinelander High School baseball team will look like next spring - the Rebels started Comer at catcher while electing to make regular starter Tyler Blomdahl, who graduated this spring, the designated hitter for the contest.
In the first, Comer hit batter Jacob Lacy in the helmet while trying to make a snap throw to first on runner Alex Hoffman. The ball caromed into foul territory and Hoffman advanced to third on the error. He scored when Lacy singled to right later in the at bat. In the third, Comer couldn't hang on to a strong throw following a flyout, which came in well ahead of Brett Ainsworth's attempt to score from third.
The Patriots committed four errors in the first three innings as Rhinelander jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the middle of the third. Two more errors also help the Rebels generate runs in the fifth in the sixth.
Comer, Quade and Zuiker had two hits each in the loss for Rhinelander. The Rebels had nine hits in all, but left four runners in scoring position.
"We had opportunities to win this game and we just did not capitalize on them," Huhnstock said. "It would have been nice earlier in the game when we had runners on, but we were just were not able to get that clutch hit to put the pressure on them to blow the game open. Eventually, they ended up putting some hits together after the walks and it came back to kill us."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
Comments:
You must login to comment.