March 29, 2017 at 3:10 p.m.
Hodags look sharp in baseball scrimmage
Hodags look sharp in baseball scrimmage
Tyler Blomdahl homered and drove in three while Easton Senoraske added a couple of hits and Jacob DeMeyer pitched a pair of scoreless innings as the Hodags scrimmaged Marathon, unofficially winning the eight-inning affair 9-2.
DeMeyer, a junior and projected staff ace, worked around a couple of walks and the offense got going late in the scrimmage, scoring five runs in its final two at-bats.
"Offensively, you could just tell the first couple times through we were just kind of getting our timing down," head coach Joe Waksmonski said. "Then the last three, four times through the order you could see the guys getting that timing down finally and they were hitting the ball hard. Even the outs we were making were a couple of hard-hit outs."
Blomdahl, who hit a club-best seven home runs between the high school and American Legion seasons last year, flashed his power Tuesday in the fourth inning, blasting a two-run shot over the fence in right center. He added an RBI single to right in the seventh, part of a 2-for-3 day at the plate for the senior catcher.
"When he's at his best he's actually hitting the ball opposite field," Waksmonski said. "He's an individual with tremendous power and he's definitely capable of taking an outside pitch and driving it the other way."
Rhinelander played error-free baseball on Tuesday and made a couple of nice plays at second base to get out of potential jams.
Cole Spaulding, who started the day at second, snagged a sinking line drive in the first, sparking an inning-ending double play. With two outs and the bases loaded in the sixth, Josh Randolph made a diving stop near second and flipped the ball to Senoraske covering the bag to get out of the inning.
"Defense is going to be one of our strengths this year and it's encouraging to see that defense play this well, especially being the first day outside," Waksmonski said. "It's good to see. In conditions like this, the ball is going to stay down, so you're more concerned about throwing the ball and we made a couple nice, strong throws over to first base to get the outs today."
Rhinelander used six different pitchers in the scrimmage, in which the teams played two consecutive innings of offense followed by two consecutive innings of defense. DeMeyer struck out three, walked two and allowed no hits in two innings of work. Junior Brad Comer worked the third and fourth, giving up a hit and two walks. Senoraske worked a scoreless fifth but ran into trouble in the sixth, surrendering a hit and three walks before giving way to fellow senior Matt Rudolph. Rudolph allowed an RBI-single but got out of the inning thanks to a strikeout and Randolph's diving play at second. Tait Spencer and Brad Quade faced the minimum in the seventh and eighth.
"We just need to throw more strikes, obviously," Waksmonski said when asked to evaluate his pitching staff. "With that being the first time out, first time on a real mound for the year, we're always striving to throw more strikes. It felt like we were at more like 50 percent strike-ball ratio. We want to get that closer to 70-30. It's great to get that first time out and get that experience in. We can learn from that."
Rhinelander took advantage of some shaky Marathon defense to plate its first few runs. Rudolph and Randolph scored when Marathon dropped Kaden Umland's bloop fly to shallow right with two out in the third. A two-out error allowed Comer to reach in the fourth and set the stage for Blomdahl's blast.
Comer, Blomdahl and Spaulding strung together RBI singles in a three-run seventh. Alec Modrow scored on a two-out error in the eighth and Senoraske followed with an RBI single.
Though the Hodags batted their entire 14-man varsity roster in the contest, Waksmonski said most of his starting nine is already set.
"I think definitely the first six of maybe seven guys, that will be kind of the constant in the beginning of the season," he said. "The bottom two spots we'll kind of be rotating on a game-to-game basis depending on who's pitching and whatnot. But the first six guys are the guys we're going ot roll with and expect big things from, especially early on."
The Hodags open the season Monday at Green Bay Southwest, kicking off a stretch of five games in six days in the Hodags' opening week of contests. Waksmonski said getting outside Tuesday and facing live pitching was an invaluable experience for his club.
"For our pitchers, I think it's tremendous for them to get their cleats on and get on a mound as opposed to throwing off a wooden mound or a rubber mound in the gym that's moving on them. That's always good for them," he said. "Even our hitters get their cleats on, dig into a batter's box, feel themselves running out of that batter's box down the line. All and all, this is a great experience to have a scrimmage before our first game."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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