July 24, 2017 at 2:29 p.m.
Clock strikes midnight on Rebels' tourney run
Rhinelander rallies from down 9 but falls to Antigo 14-13 in regional championship
Clock strikes midnight on Rebels' tourney run
Garrett Held hit a walk-off single in the bottom of the seventh as the Rebels lost to old rival Antigo 14-13 in the championship game of the Wisconsin American Legion AA regional tournament at Stafford Field in a marathon contest that finished after 11 p.m.
Held's last-inning heroics came after Rhinelander put on a rousing rally of its own. Trailing 13-4 after five innings, Rhinelander scored six times in the sixth and three more in the seventh to tie the game, but couldn't push across the go-ahead run.
Easton Senoraske capped off the Rebel rally with an infield hit to third to push across the tying run with two outs in the top of the seventh. Jacob DeMeyer then walked to load the bases off Antigo reliever Jake Fleischman, but Brad Comer went down swinging to end the threat.
Hunter Kirsch hit a one-out single off reliever Josh Randolph, advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored on Held's single to center.
The Rebel dugout was understandably dejected afterward but had nothing to be ashamed of, according to manager Dan Huhnstock, considering it nearly was routed via the 10-run rule before its last-ditch effort.
"It really shows to the character of our team that we do not quit," he said. "I'm so proud of them the way that - this tournament especially and the other tournaments building up to now - they've grown as a team, matured as a team. They never say die. They pick each other up. If someone makes a mistake, they pick each other up. They support each other. It's just amazing to see how they've grown from the beginning of the summer to now, grown as a team. It's really special and it's unfortunate that we lost."
Antigo jumped on Rhinelander for five runs right away in the top of the first after starter Brandon Hess hit a batter with the bases loaded, followed by a two-out throwing error at third by Comer which allowed three runs to score. Wade Farmer tacked on an RBI single after that.
Antigo tacked on another run in the second and one more in the third. Hess worked into the fourth, giving up four straight hits to start the inning against the hard-hitting heart of the Typhoon order. Randolph went the rest of the way. Those were the two best options Rhinelander had left after exhausting Comer, DeMeyer, Senoraske, Matt Rudolph and Bryce Schickert's pitch counts earlier in the tournament. With Randolph, the Rebels went with a player who had never pitched a varsity inning and had not pitched period since May.
"We did run out of pitching, but the pitching we threw out there kept us in the game," Huhnstock said. "We got whatever Brandon Hess had in his tank. And Josh Randolph, what a heroic effort by him, not throwing an inning of ball all summer, coming in and keeping us in the game, giving us a chance to win. Josh, the last time he threw an inning of ball was during JV ball but, having coached him on JV, I knew he could come in, step in (and do the job)."
Randolph struck out two in between a Collin Meinert double to limit the damage to three runs in the Antigo fourth. The Typhon scored three more in the fifth and left the game-clinching run on base.
Then the epic rally began.
Randolph hit an RBI single to get things going. After Kurt Zuiker scored on a wild pitch, Spencer hit a two-out single, followed by a two-run double by Senoraske, who later scored on a wild pitch to cut the lead to 13-0.
Randolph sat Antigo down in order in the sixth, snapping the Typhoon's 15-inning scoring streak in the tournament. Rhinelander promptly loaded the bases with nobody out in the seventh with singles by Brad Quade, Zuiker and Randolph. Tyler Blomdahl followed with a two-run single to left before Cole Spaulding and Spencer struck out, setting the stage for Senoraske, who hit a 3-2 chopper to third that Hunter Kirsch fielded. With no play to first, Kirsch tried to tag out Blomdahl, but missed, allowing Randolph to score the tying run.
"Our guys just played a whale of a game," Huhnstock said. "We kind of had a hunch it was going to be a higher-scoring game tonight just due to where we are in the tournament with pitching. It turned out to be just what we kind of thought."
The teams combined for 27 runs and 33 hits in the highest-scoring game of the entire tournament.
The Rebels may look back at what might have been. Six of Antigo's 14 runs crossed thanks to a combination of errors, wild pitches and passed balls. The Rebels also left a season-high 14 runners on base.
"We knew they were going to get hits. What we needed to do is try to minimize any free bases that they got," Huhnstock said. "We gave up some free bases. They gave up free bases too. They just ended up with one more run on the scoreboard than we did."
Friday's games
Just to get to Saturday's championship game, the Rebels had to win twice Friday as they made their way through the loser's bracket following a loss to Shawano Wednesday on the opening night of the tournament.
Rhinelander had no trouble in the first game, routing listless Minocqua 15-1 in five innings, before avenging their loss to the Patriots with a 5-1 triumph.
The second game was much more challenging than the first. DeMeyer started the nightcap and labored through four innings, walking seven and hitting a batter before giving way to Senoraske in relief. Yet Rhinelander was able to limit Shawano to only five hits in the contest and came up with some timely defensive plays.
"We battled and it was a battle for us the whole game," Huhnstock said.
Things started off well enough for the Rebels. Senoraske doubled, DeMeyer tripled and Comer hit an RBI grounder to give Rhinelander a quick 2-0 lead in the first, but the offense sputtered from there as Shawano hung around. Quade's infield hit in the third scored Senoraske to give Rhinelander a 3-0 lead, but DeMeyer walked three batters and gave up an RBI double to Dylan Sumnicht, all with two out in the fourth, to trim the lead back to two.
"JD was off a little bit, but still only gave up one run," Huhnstock said. "He was uncomfortable with the mound all night long. He was doing a lot of landscaping out there and that's not like him at all. He just couldn't find a comfort zone."
The Patriots had a chance to draw closer in the fifth against Senoraske with runners at the corners and one out, but Casey Baumann flew out to DeMeyer in center, who rifled a throw home to gun down Jacob Lacy trying to score from third.
"One of the best strikes he threw the whole game," Huhnstock quipped about DeMeyer's play in the fifth. "That definitely kept us in the game there and allowed us to build and go get the win."
Two-out hits by Zuiker and Senoraske in the fifth and sixth gave the Rebels a little extra breathing room.
Rhinelander had plenty of breathing room in Friday's first game after scoring 10 times in the opening frame. Rhinelander tacked on three more in the second on one each in the third and the fourth.
DeMeyer went 3-for-4 against Minocqua while Matt Rudolph pitched five innings of three-hit ball and worked around six walks as Rhinelander defeated Minocqua for the fourth time this season.
Medford ahead?
Though the Rebels will not be making a trip to the state tournament this week in Merrill, the potential exists for Rhinelander to play twice more with plenty on the line.
Rhinelander is scheduled to host Medford on Wednesday in a doubleheader at Stafford Field to make up two rained out contests from earlier in the season. The games have plenty of import for Rhinelander, which is currently tied with Mosinee at 8-2 in the Great Northern Legion Conference standings. Two wins would give Rhinelander the GNLC title outright as Mosinee has no plans to make up contests against Minocqua and Northwoods that were postponed earlier in the summer.
Medford finished fourth in the seven-team Tomahawk Class A regional this past weekend. Wednesday's games are contingent on Medford having enough players to field a team.
"I really hope we do get to play them games because I really want to have this bunch of kids one more night," Huhnstock said.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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