July 22, 2019 at 12:59 p.m.
Riding out the storm
Rebels survive to third day of weather-plagued Legion regional
Riding out the storm
The Rebels did, but left Antigo Sunday with still more work to do.
Rhinelander found itself 1-1 in the weather-plagued tournament. The Rebels lost 9-6 to Pulaski Sunday before rebounding to beat Shawano 14-2 in an elimination game in the tournament.
Rhinelander and Pulaski were set to meet again Monday night in an elimination game. The winner of that game was to play Antigo immediately afterward, trying to force a winner-take-all championship game Tuesday.
Rhinelander trailed Pulaski 9-1 after five innings when play was halted Friday night due to line of severe thunderstorms that ripped through the state and was bearing down on Antigo. Storm cleanup and rainy conditions washed away all of Saturday's play in the tournament.
When the Rebels finally returned to Kretz Bros. Park Sunday afternoon, they made a dent in Pulaski's lead. They came up short in the end, but carried the momentum of the final two innings into the next contest against Shawano.
"It has been a long weekend and the weekend's going to continue into the week here. Mother Nature really dealt a severe blow to all the baseball here in Antigo this weekend," Rebels manager Dan Huhnstock said.
Lefty Bryce Schickert struggled in what could have been his last appearance for the club, unable to get out of the fifth inning as Pulaski put up big frames against him in the third and the fifth before the storms came.
Much of the damage was done in the third as Schickert needed 45 pitches to get through Pulaski's five-run frame. The turning point seemed to be a 10-pitch at-bat to Jarrett Olson with two on and nobody out in the inning. Though Schickert eventually struck out Olson, the rest of the Pulaski lineup took advantage.
Carson Williquette singled to load the bases before Jake Neitzel walked to force in the game's first run. That was followed by an Easton Vertz RBI single, a Parker Dorn sacrifice fly, and an RBI single by Sam Brodhagen. Two batters later, Owen Heinz walked with the bases loaded to give Pulaski a 5-0 lead.
Schickert worked out of the fourth with no damage but following leadoff hits to Brodhagen and Kendall Kaczrowski in the fifth - and with only four pitches remaining before Schickert reached the 105-pitch limit, he was lifted from the game.
"I think he may have lost focus a little bit, but we didn't score any runs for him either," Huhnstock said. "You can keep focus a lot easier if you're scoring some runs too.
"Bryce, we got out of him what we expected. He carried us deep into the game."
Teagan Guckenberg came on and struggled in relief. A wild pitch allowed Brodhagen to score and then he went through a stretch were he delivered 12 balls in 13 pitches, issuing bases-loaded walks to Williquette, Neitzel and Vertz that allowed Pulaski's lead to balloon to 9-1.
Rhinelander's only offense Friday night was a two-out double by Jacob Dreifuerst that scored Martin Hoger in the fourth. It was a completely different story when the teams returned to the park Sunday afternoon.
The Rebels greeted reliever Alex Brodhagen with three straight hits when play resumed, including another RBI double by Dreifuerst. Alex Kubeny added an RBI when he reached on an error and Joe Schneider had a run-scoring hit that halved Pulaski's lead to 9-5.
Hoger doubled to lead off the seventh and scored on Dreifuerst's sacrifice fly. Walker Hartman reached on an error to extend the game, but Kubeny grounded out to third to end the contest.
"I think maybe we win that game today if we had another inning to work on them," Huhnstock said. "That's baseball. You're going to win some and you're going to lose some. The important thing is we get to play again tomorrow."
The good news for Rhinelander was the hot hitting at the end of the Pulaski game carried over to when it took on Shawano a short time later. Trailing 2-1 after an inning, the Rebels scored six times in the second and never looked back, pounding out 13 hits in the win over the Patriots.
"I think finishing up the first game set the tone for the bats in the second game," Huhnstock said. "Everyone was squaring up on the ball real good and doing some damage."
Schneider tied the game with a single up the middle in the second and Danny Zuiker hit the go-ahead base knock moments later. After a sacrifice by Abe Laggis, Hoger delivered a two-run single and eventually scored himself on a wild pitch. Josh Randolph singled and scored on a fielder's choice by Hartman and the Rebels could have potentially done more damage in the inning but Johnson lined a shot off Guckenberg's batting helmet with runners on the move with two out in the inning. Guckenberg was OK, but was called out for being hit by the batted ball.
Hoger singled home Zuiker in the third. Zuiker singed and scored on an error in the fifth and the Rebels put it away with a five-run sixth.
Rhinelander made a calculated risk in the second game, not using their presumptive top pitching options after Schickert - Randolph and Hoger - and instead giving the ball to Walker Hartman. The gamble paid off as Hartman segued down after allowing two runs in the first. He allowed three hits with five walks and four strikeouts over 3 2/3 innings. Isaac Bixby retired all seven Shawano batters he faced to lock down the game and earn the win.
The move allowed both Randolph and Hoger to be available for Monday night's elimination games.
"We're playing to win this tournament and, in order to do that, we're going to need our best pitchers facing the best teams," Huhnstock said. "At some point in time, Walker was going to have to pitch. We got that handled today. He did a very nice job on the mound. Bix came in and shut the door on them in relief and we move on."
Zuiker went 3-for-4 and scored five times in the Shawano contest while Laggis, Hoger and Randolph had two hits each. Hoger was 3-for-3 against Pulaski and Dreifuerst went 2-for-3 with an RBI.
Rhinelander needed to win twice Monday to force a winner-take-all championship game with Antigo on Tuesday.
Antigo made it through the winner's bracket with a pair of 4-3 wins over Shawano and Pulaski.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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