July 18, 2018 at 1:02 p.m.
Rhinelander reaches Prep, Senior League title games
Rhinelander reaches Prep, Senior League title games
Rhinelander earned a spot in the Prep League final, upsetting second-seeded Eagle River Blue Monday night, setting up a showdown with top-ranked Eagle River Red.
Meanwhile, Rhinelander Green rolled to the Senior League final as the No. 1 seed with a win at Merrill Gray Monday night. That set up the fourth meeting of the season between Rhinelander Green and Eagle River, which downed Laser Pros International Tuesday in the other Senior League semi.
The championship games were played Wednesday night at Stafford Field and concluded after the deadline for this edition.
Prep League: Rhinelander 11, Eagle River Blue 3
Rhinelander used big innings in the second and third to punch its ticket to the Prep League title game, defeating Eagle River Blue 11-3 at Northland Pines High School Monday night.
The Hodags scored five times in the second, and three more times in the third, to take a commanding 8-1 lead and cruised from there.
Singles by Sam Schneider, Cal Laggis and Caleb Olcikas, along with a couple of run-scoring passed ball, keyed the Hodags rally in the second inning. Kaden Chillemi hit a bases-loaded single in the third followed by an RBI double by Olcikas.
Ryan Jamison walked, stole a couple of bases and scored on a Mason Davis single in the fourth and the Hodags tacked insurance runs in the sixth on a two-run single by Schneider.
Eagle River scored single runs in the first, fourth and seventh innings after the leadoff batter reached base in all three frames.
The Hodags collected 10 hits in the contest, led by a 3-for-3 effort by Schneider. Olcikas was 2-for-5. Jamison, Davis, Logan Schmoeger, Laggis and Chillemi had the other hits.
Schneider started on the mound for Rhinelander, allowing a run on three hits with a couple of strikeouts over three innings of work. Schmoeger got the Hodags out of a bases loaded jam in the fourth and pitched 3 1/3 innings of relief to earn the win. He allowed one hit and struck out three.
Senior League: Rhinelander Green 9, Merrill Gray 5
Top-seeded Rhinelander Green took advantage of enough Merrill Gray mistakes early and then fended off a late rally to overcome a struggling offense and win 9-5 Monday in a semifinal contest at Athletic Park.
Rhinelander Green led 5-2 after three innings - despite not recording a hit or an RBI to that point.
That was due to plenty of errant Merrill Gray pitching. Walker Hartman, Teagan Guckenberg, Jordan Kuczmarski and Ben Sinclair all recorded walks in the second inning and came around to score thanks to a trio of wild pitches and a passed ball.
Quinn Lamers scored in a similar fashion in the third, drawing a walk before eventually coming around on a passed ball.
The Hodag bats finally found some life later in the contest, plating some needed insurance runs. Jesse Mahner singled in a run in the fifth followed by a Hartman RBI groundout. Devyn Orth led off the sixth with a single and came around on a base knock by Sinclair, who scored on Riley Lepak's infield hit.
Merrill scored twice in the third, once in the fifth and made things interesting in the seventh, scoring a pair of runs thanks to a throwing error and a passed ball. The Grays run was cut short, however, when a runner was called out on the base paths for interference for the final out of the game.
Rhinelander Green outhit Merrill Gray 6-4 in the contest with one hit each for Lamers, Mahner, Orth, Kuczmarski, Sinclair and Lepak.
Hartman started and gave up a pair of unearned runs on a hit with six strikeouts over three innings. Mahner went the rest of the way to earn the win. None of the three runs he allowed were earned. He struck out six and allowed three hits over the final four innings.
Senior League: Eagle River 12, Laser Pros 8
Laser Pros International's bid to make it an all-Rhinelander Senior League championship game was derailed Tuesday night in a mistake-filled 12-8 loss to Eagle River at Stafford Field.
Laser Pros committed nine errors in the game and spotted the Eagles a 5-0 lead early in the contest - with only one of those runs earned.
Twice Laser Pros fought back to within a pair of runs, but they had a hard time stopping Eagle River late in the game. The Eagles collected 10 hits over the final four innings and scored in every frame except the third.
Trailing 6-1 in the fourth, Laser Pros mounted its first rally as Payton Johnson doubled home Joe Schneider. Alex Kubeny followed with a single that plated Sam Schneider. Johnson also scored on the play after the ball got passed the right fielder to cut the lead to 6-4.
Eagle River answered back with two runs each in the fifth and sixth to build a 10-4 advantage, but Laser Pros took advantage of some erratic Eagles pitching in the bottom of the sixth. Jacksen Smith, Cole Lehman, David Schramke and Tim Fox all drew bases-loaded walks but an Isaac Bixby pop out to the catcher ended the rally with the bases loaded.
Eagle River scored twice more in the seventh and any chance of a Laser Pros comeback ended when Johnson hit a sharp ground ball to second, triggering a tailor made double play to end the contest.
Johnson collected half of Laser Pros hits in the contest, finishing the game 3-for-4.
Kubeny went 2-for-2 and Joe Schneider had the team's only other hit.
Smith started and lasted only two thirds of an inning for Laser Pros with three walks and a hit batsmen. Fox pitched 2 2/3 innings of relief, allowing three runs on four hits. Bixby finished the contest, allowing six runs on eight hits with five strikeouts over the final 3 2/3 innings.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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