June 22, 2018 at 11:51 a.m.
Legion: Rebels shutout Mosinee, become lone GNLC unbeaten
Legion: Rebels shutout Mosinee, become lone GNLC unbeaten
Martin Hoger pitched 4 2/3 innings of shutout baseball in his varsity debut and the Rebels scored in every inning except the fourth as they knocked off Mosinee 7-0 at Stafford Field.
Mosinee had defeated Rhinelander three times during the high school season, including a 7-6 decision in the WIAA regional finals. The roles reversed Wednesday in a battle of the two lone remaining conference unbeatens as Hoger and Brad Comer combined to pitch a three-hit shutout for Post 7.
"That was a team (Mosinee) that went to state. I believe they were missing a couple of their players, but it was still a very nice pitching performance by Martin and then Brad came in to shut the door on them," Rebels manager Dan Huhnstock said.
Hoger had plenty of pitching experience at the Babe Ruth level in previous years, but was unavailable to pitch during most of the high school season. He looked strong in his first appearance of the summer, recording five strikeouts in the first four innings.
"We couldn't have asked for anything more out of him than that," Huhnstock said. "I'm not sure how many strikeouts he had, but he had some strikeouts. I think they had only one or two hits off of him. That's something we can really build off of this summer."
Hoger appeared to tire, however, in the fifth. Walks to Jacob Zernicke and Matthew Dodei sandwiched between a Brayden Horn base hit loaded the bases with two outs and Huhnstock went to the bullpen to call on Comer.
"Game pitching and bullpen pitching are two different things," Huhnstock said of Hoger's 70-pitch effort. "He was getting a little tired, started leaving the ball up a little bit and was noticeably tired."
Comer fanned Trey Fitzgerald to get out of the fourth-inning jam. It was the only time that Mosinee put runners in scoring position in the contest. Comer struck out five and allowed only one hit the rest of the way to earn the save.
"That's what we expect Brad to be able to do when he comes in, whether it's starting or coming in, in a bullpen situation," Huhnstock said. "We expect him to be able to take control of the game and take care of business for us."
The Rebels staked Hoger to an early lead and then kept building on it. Easton Senoraske led off the first with a double and came around on a single by Comer. Hoger reached on a dropped fly ball to right in the second and later scored on a wild pitch.
Rhinelander added three in the third as Abe Laggis led off with a single, stole second and came around on a Jacob DeMeyer single. Danny Zuiker drew a bases-loaded walk to force in a run and end starter James Reed's night on the hill. Reliever Luke Spink walked Walker Hartman, the first batter he faced, to force in a run and give Rhinelander a 5-0 lead.
Hartman doubled home Hoger in the fifth and Laggis scored from third on a balk call in the sixth when Spink tried to pick DeMeyer off first base.
"We did a little bit of running on them, had some key base hits, a few walks, just enough to put crooked numbers on the board just about every inning," Huhnstock said.
Rhinelander is off to a 7-0 start and is now 4-0 nearing the halfway point of the GNLC schedule. The Rebels won't play again until this coming Wednesday when they host Tomahawk at Stafford Field. Rhinelander has already defeated the Cubs 19-0 and 8-0 this summer.
"Hopefully we'll not lose the momentum we've been gaining," Huhnstock said of the long layoff. "Unfortunately, the way the schedule fell with some games getting canceled and stuff, we got a break right when we've got great baseball weather mid-season. But it is what it is. Hopefully the guys will go do a little bit of fishing, a little swimming, come back with batteries fully recharged and ready to pick back up where we left off."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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