June 21, 2017 at 1:28 p.m.
Team review: RHS softball
Hodags battled adversity in '17
Team review: RHS softball
Who knows how far the Hodags would have gone had the stars aligned properly. They did face two eventual state champs during the season, but Rhinelander's high hopes never really got off the ground in a season derailed by injury and stunted by narrow defeats.
The result was an adversity-riddled 13-10 campaign that saw the Hodags tie for third in the GNC (8-4) and be eliminated in the WIAA regional finals for the fourth time in five years.
"I'm very proud of this team," coach D.J. DeMeyer said earlier this month at the team's banquet. "We could have folded up really early and we didn't. We kept on battling."
Here are five key storylines from the Hodag fastpitch season.
Ali's injury
A lot of what Rhinelander hoped to accomplish this spring rested on the shoulders of senior hurler Ali Schickert. An imposing 6-foot presence in the circle, Schickert came in off a dominant junior campaign and was ready for more.
Then April 18 happened.
Trailing in a wet and miserable game against Mosinee at Pioneer Park, Schickert slipped trying to field a ground ball hit back toward the circle in the seventh inning. She wouldn't pitch again for three weeks due to a knee injury.
Rhinelander muddled around .500 in Schickert's absence, going 5-5 with a platoon of juniors Stephanie Kuester and Molly Wagler, however three of those wins came against GNC backmarkers Northland Pines and Lakeland.
Close only counts
Schickert's first game back from injury was May 8 at Mosinee, and also underscored another one of Rhinelander's key weaknesses this season - winning close games.
Schickert was staked to a 4-1 lead entering the bottom of the seventh inning of that game but could not close it out. Mosinee rallied for three in the bottom half of the inning and eventually beat Rhinelander in eight innings, 5-4.
At the time, it was Rhinelander's third one-run loss in a row.
There would be another later in the month at Tomahawk, a 6-5 loss in nine innings. Those two defeats proved to be the difference between Rhinelander winning the GNC and finishing in a third-place tie.
"I think the difference this year is we didn't get the timely hits," DeMeyer said. "We hit the ball. I don't think we struggled hitting the ball but, a lot of times, we hit it right at them. I don't know how to change that."
Offensive outage
But it wasn't just timely hitting. Overall, Rhinelander's offensive numbers plummeted in 2017 (see chart above).
The Hodags averaged three fewer runs per game in conference play, and 2.6 fewer runs per game overall.
Rhinelander's team batting average in league play dipped 84 points to .277 and the Hodags mustered only 19 extra base hits, opposed to 34 the season prior.
More than half of Rhinelander's extra base knocks this year came from the one person who seemed to be immune from the team's power struggles, Makayla Kuester. The junior catcher had six doubles and four homers in the conference, en route to winning the league's triple crown. She was the GNC leader in batting average (.514), homers and RBIs (20). Kuester finished with a mind-boggling 1.027 slugging percentage in conference play, 106 points better than No. 2 in the category, Antigo's Allison Kondzela.
Beaten by the best
A couple of those close games actually fell the Hodags' way late in the season. Rhinelander beat Antigo 3-2 in the first game of a doubleheader on a walkoff error and held off Merrill to win its playoff opener 2-1.
Any momentum the Hodags had was no match for the buzzsaw that was Rice Lake.
The top seed in the regional, the Hodags had no answer for the Warriors when the teams met for a regional final May 26 in Rice Lake.
Dana Covey smashed a home run off the scoreboard in left field against Schickert in the first inning and it was all Rice Lake from there in an 11-1 rout.
The Hodags can take solace, however, as they were not alone. The Warriors, ranked third in Division 2 entering the playoffs, went on a tear all the way to the state championship game in Madison. Leading 9-5 in the seventh against Beloit Turner, the Warriors gave up four runs, but rallied to score four of their own in the top of the eighth to win the D2 state title.
That wasn't the only team Rhinelander faced that went on to earn a goal ball in Madison. Kaukauna took the D1 crown. The Hodags nearly beat the Galloping Ghosts during an invite May 6 in Kaukauna, but lost 3-2 on a walkoff two-run homer.
What's next
The Hodags will have some major holes to fill next year, beginning in the circle with Schickert.
The good news is that Stephanie Kuester and Wagler were pressed into duty during Schickert's injury. Both put up solid numbers in interim duty, but between the two of them, struck out only 26 batters, approximately half of what Schickert did (51) in a similar number of innings pitched.
The Hodags also lose slap-hitting leadoff hitter Ivy Packard, who has controlled traffic in the outfield the last four years, along with the entire left side of the infield with Lindsay Juedes and Erica Counter.
"We have a lot of work to do for next year if we want to contend for the title," DeMeyer said, challenging his returning players. "I don't see why we should take anything less than that."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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