June 8, 2018 at 12:04 p.m.
Schickert fans 7; big inning carries Rebels to win in opener
Schickert fans 7; big inning carries Rebels to win in opener
That was the recipe for the Post 7 Rebels as they kicked of the 2018 American Legion baseball season with a 5-1 win over Merrill Post 46 at Stafford Field Wednesday night.
Schickert went the distance for the Rebels, fanning seven Merrill batters, and the Hodags strung together four runs on four hits with two outs in the third inning to take control of the contest.
"It was an excellent way to start the summer, a nice clean game, 5-1 victory," Rebels manager Dan Huhnstock said. "It was a very well-played game on both sides, actually. We strung a couple hits together, had a nice inning and that pretty much took care of things."
Merrill starter Brett Seubert held Rhinelander hitless the first time through the batting order, but the bats got going for Rhinelander with two out in the bottom of the third.
Payton Johnson reached on an error to lead off the third and was still standing at first base when Josh Randolph smacked a double to right center. Abe Laggis followed with the first of his two doubles in the contest to drive in what proved to be the tying and winning runs.
The Rebels tacked on another run when Holden Smith misfired after knocking down a hot shot to third by Jacob DeMeyer and Brad Quade singled home DeMeyer after that.
That was plenty of run support for Schickert, whose only real trouble came in the top half of the third inning. A walk to Alex Gehrke and back-to-back singles by Seubert and Smith loaded the bases with nobody out. Merrill was able to muster only a run out of it on a Payton Becker sacrifice fly to center and Schickert fanned Adam Detert to get out of the inning with no further damage.
"The third inning was the game, basically," Huhnstock said. "Schicky working out of that bases-loaded jam with a couple of pop outs and a strikeout. What a way to keep them at bay there. Then us coming in and answering right away with a two-out rally. That's the way we need to play ball all summer."
Rhinelander tacked on one more run in the fifth as Laggis doubled and scored two batters later when Brody Gehrke bobbled Quade's single to center.
Those two hits, coupled with the four-hit barrage in the third, were Rhinelander's only hits in a briskly-played game that took only 1 hour, 36 minutes to complete. Laggis and Quade each finished with a pair of hits for the Rebels, batting out of the Nos. 2 and 4 spots in the lineup.
"Abe hit the ball real well. He stepped right up," Huhnstock said. "You get a little traffic on the bases and then let some of our more experienced hitters stroke the ball."
Schicket, who led the Rhinelander High School baseball team in innings pitched this spring, was effective most of the night. He allowed six hits and walked only one batter in a complete-game, 95-pitch effort.
"He was around the plate. Even his misses were close," Huhnstock said. "I'm not sure how many strikeouts he had, but he struck out a number of guys in key situations too."
Seubert and Smith each collected two hits in a losing effort for Merrill. Seubert allowed five runs, all unearned, on six hits over 5 2/3 innings with six strikeouts.
Schedule changes
What was supposed to be a busy start to the summer for the Rebels, with nine games in 12 days to kick off the season, took an unforeseen turn Wednesday.
Antigo backed out of a scheduled game against the Rebels on Thursday. Huhnstock said Antigo was going to be short on pitching for a Thursday night after the majority of its players played two games for the Antigo High School squad Tuesday, eventually losing to Green Bay Preble in a WIAA Division 1 sectional final.
Furthermore, Monday's game against Minocqua, and all future games against the 89ers this summer, were canceled on Wednesday. Minocqua was forced to fold its legion team for the upcoming season due to a lack of players.
"Unfortunately, Minocqua is unable to field a team this summer and with Antigo playing in a sectional final they were unable to come up here (on Thursday)," Huhnstock said. "It does make a bit hit on our schedule here. I'd love to get in more games and I'll be on the phone trying to find more games. At this late date it's really tough."
Minocqua was one of five teams scheduled to participate in the Rebel Invite at Stafford Field over Father's Day Weekend. Huhnstock said he hopes to find another team to take the 89ers spot, otherwise the schedule for the event would be altered.
The Rebels opened Great Northern Legion Conference play at Tomahawk on Friday night and will travel to Eagle River on Wednesday for a GNLC contest against Eagle River.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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