June 19, 2017 at 1:12 p.m.
Rousing Rebels
Rhinelander steamrolls to title in home invite
Rousing Rebels
The Rebels did just that over the weekend, combining timely hitting, strong pitching and solid defense to win the Rebel Invitational at Stafford Field.
Rhinelander had the title clinched prior to the
weather-plagued final day of the three-day invite, routing Mosinee 16-1 in Friday night's opener and coming alive late for 12-1 and 10-1 victories over Tomahawk and Minocqua on Saturday.
Rhinelander capped of the tournament with a 6-2 win over Chequamegon Sunday.
"We always really hope that we win the tournament but also this here bodes well for us going down in the road in the future," said Huhnstock after his team won the invite for the second year in a row. "It gives us more confidence and momentum."
Rhinelander 16, Mosinee 1
The Rebels set the tone for the weekend right away Friday night, scoring in every inning in a surprising 16-1 rout of Mosinee in five innings.
Rhinelander jumped on Mosinee for three runs in the opening inning, put up a nine-spot in the fourth and pounded out 14 hits on the night against a trio of Mosinee pitchers.
"We definitely had our hitting shoes on," Huhnstock said. "It wasn't just one or two guys. Everybody on the team was getting base knocks."
Kurt Zuiker had a big night, going 4-for-4 at the plate. His evening included driving in the final run of the first, a two-run single as part of the big fourth inning and an RBI single in the fifth that pushed across Rhinelander's 16th run.
Brad Comer hit a solo homer to lead off the fifth, went 3-for-4 with three RBIs and finished a triple short of the cycle. Cole Spaulding added two hits in the victory. Huhnstock said the team had a simple approach at the plate.
"Just go up there and be aggressive," he said. "It definitely worked tonight."
Comer worked around four walks to earn the win. One of those walks came around to score Mosinee's lone run as Austin Freiboth crossed on Brandon Bernarde's sacrifice fly in the third. Comer scattered three hits and struck out three over four innings.
"We noticed a couple of things mechanically that we're hoping we can work on him with that will help him along with his control a little bit, but he pretty much had his way when he was throwing strikes and we played good defense behind him tonight," Huhnstock said.
After hitting the first batter of the fifth inning, Easton Senoraske sat down the next three in order to close out the contest.
Rhinelander 12, Tomahawk 1
Junior-to-be Bryce Schickert, in only his second varsity start of the season and first with the Rebels this summer, held Tomahawk to two hits in a complete-game effort and Rhinelander teed off on the Cubs' bullpen to avenge a loss earlier in the season.
Rhinelander took the lead for good with a run in the fourth inning, but managed only two runs off Tomahawk starter William Russell through five innings. The Rebels got five runs off reliever Jake Ruid in the sixth and another five of Logan Jazdzewski in the seventh.
"We had Bryce throwing a heck of a game and we were doing just enough to keep the game tight early, but then the bats exploded and we put up a bunch of runs," Huhnstock said.
Jacob DeMeyer reached on a fielder's choice, went all the way to third on a botched pickoff attempt and scored on a Comer grounder in the first. Tomahawk tied it in the third thanks to a pair of Rhinelander errors and Rhinelander retook the lead in the fourth when Josh Randolph singled home Cole Spaulding.
The first four batters of the sixth reached as Brandon Hess drew a bases-loaded walk to push across the first run of the inning. Senoraske hit a two-run double, DeMeyer followed with a sacrifice fly and Comer added an RBI double.
Zuiker led off the scoring in the seventh with a solo homer to right, Tait Spencer added an RBI single, Senoraske double again, driving home another run, DeMeyer had an RBI groundout and Spaulding was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, pushing across the final run.
"Once we got into some of their second and third pitchers we put together some real good at-bats and got a couple free bases on passed ball there, took advantage and put together a bunch of runs," Huhnstock said.
Randolph finished 3-for-4 at the plate. Senoraske and Comer had two hits each as Rhinelander collected 12 as a team.
That was more than enough run support for Schickert, who allowed an unearned run, struck out four and walked two in an 84-pitch effort.
"He kept them off balance and we made plays behind him," Huhnstock said. "We had a couple real good plays in the field behind him and just kept them off balance real nice. They hit the ball to us and we made plays."
Rhinelander 10, Minocqua 1
It was a similar story for Rhinelander in Saturday's nightcap.
Leading 3-1 after four innings, the Rebels tagged reliever Brett Slavinsky for seven runs in their final two at-bats to cruise to yet another lopsided victory.
Matt Rudolph went the distance for Rhinelander. After allowing a run on three hits in the first inning, he gave up only two hits the rest of the way while keeping the 89ers off the scoreboard.
"Matt Rudolph did a great job on the mound for us tonight. He worked out of some jams, but did a real good job of mixing and matching, kept them off balance and we made some good defensive play," Huhnstock said.
Caleb Menzia singled home Jamie Slavinsky in the first, but it was all Rhinelander after that. The Rebels were basically gifted its first three runs off Minocqua starter TJ Ullius thanks to four 89er errors in the first two innings.
DeMeyer reached on a dropped pop-up in the first and scored after Comer reached on an error.
A throwing error added two extra bases to Randolph's single in the second. He scored on a grounder to short by Eric Grulke that was misplayed. Spencer also had an infield hit that inning and scored on a DeMeyer single.
But Ullius struck out seven Rebels over four innings and, once the defense settled down, he kept Rhinelander's offense in check.
"TJ kept us off balance and we didn't put much on the board on him but once we ran his pitch count up pretty high and they put in their reliever we made some hay while we had a chance," Huhnstock.
At 107 pitches - 13 shy of the American Legion daily max of 120 - Ullius was relieved by Brett Slavinsky in the fifth and the Rebels went to hitting. Five straight batters reached in the inning, capped off by DeMeyer's two-run double, Comer's RBI double and a two-run homer by Tyler Blomdahl to deep center.
Spencer scored on a passed ball in the sixth and Senoraske added a sacrifice fly, plating Grulke.
DeMeyer, Comer, Spaulding, Spencer and Grulke each had two hits in Rhinelander's 13-hit effort. Rudolph allowed a run on five hits with two strikeouts and three walks in a 100-pitch performance.
Rhinelander 6, Chequamegon 2
The Rebels actually found themselves in an unusual position early in the finale - trailing - but that didn't last long as Rhinelander took the final game of the tournament, the only of the four that counted toward the Great Northern Legion Conference standings.
Rhinelander didn't have a big inning, but scored in every frame except the second. A two-run fourth gave the Rebels the lead for good after Chequamegon took a brief 2-1 lead in the top of the third due to a couple of miscues.
"Today we didn't have the big, booming base knocks we had in the other games, but we played a little small ball, they made a mistake or two, we got a few walks and stuff and we made them come around and score," Huhnstock said.
The Rebels had to play some small ball after a front rolled through early Sunday morning and changed the wind to blowing in from Boom Lake. Rhinelander stole nine bases in the contest.
Kurt Zuiker was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the first to give the Rebels an early lead. Chequamegon answered in the third as hit batter and an error led to a pair of runs. The Rebels tied it in the bottom of the inning as Blomdahl reached on a two-out error and scored on Spaulding's single to left.
Another two-out error allowed Tait Spencer to score in the fourth, giving the Rebels the lead. DeMeyer followed with an RBI double. Spaulding hit a sacrifice fly to score Blomdahl in the fifth. Eric Grulke singled and scored on Comer's base knock in the sixth.
DeMeyer went all seven innings in a 112-pitch effort on the mound. Though he allowed a couple of unearned runs, he scattered only four hits and struck out eight in the win.
"That was great to be able to see him start and finish a game. Hopefully, that's something we can build off of," Huhnstock said of DeMeyer's complete-game effort. "He kept his pitch count down so that we could use him for seven innings."
The Rebels (6-1, 2-1 GNLC) get a few needed days off before traveling to Clintonville Thursday for a non-conference contest.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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