July 24, 2019 at 11:50 a.m.
Anguish in Antigo
Typhoon beats Rebels in 10 innings, denies Rhinelander shot at regional title
Anguish in Antigo
The Rebels had the Typhoon on the run Monday night but could not get the job done, falling 4-3 in 10 innings at Kretz Bros. Park as Antigo won the Wisconsin American Legion AA Region 2 title again.
Rhinelander clawed its way through the loser's bracket to finish second in the four-team double-elimination tournament. The Rebels avenged a tournament-opening loss to Pulaski with a 7-2 win earlier Monday to get to Antigo and needed to win Monday night's contest to force a winner-take-all championship game on Tuesday.
AJ Kirsch won it for the Typhoon with a bases-loaded walkoff single with nobody out in the 10th. The Rebels had an early 3-0 lead, but could not keep a hard-hitting Antigo squad down.
"I can't say enough about the way the boys played," said Rebels manager Dan Huhnstock, whose team has only defeated Antigo once since Rhinelander's last state tournament appearance in 2012. "They played inspired, hard-nosed baseball tonight against one of the best teams in the state and darn near pulled it off. It wasn't for a lack of effort."
It was the second time in three years Rhinelander finished second to Antigo in regional play. Antigo won all three of its games in the tournament by identical 4-3 scores.
Garrett Held, who shattered Rhinelander's state tournament dreams two years ago with a walkoff single in the seventh inning of the championship game, tied Monday night's game in the sixth with a two-out double to the left center gap. Neither team was able to score again until the 10th. Sebastian Noskowiak started the game-winning rally, reaching base when Josh Randolph misplayed Noskowiak's hard hit ground ball to short. Eric Langseth then singled up the middle and the Rebels decided to intentionally walk Held to load the bases for Kirsch. With everybody playing in to cut down the game-winning run at the plate, Kirsch launched the first pitch he saw to the fence in right field, ending the game.
Rhinelander (16-9) took advantage of some uncharacteristic Antigo mistakes to jump out to a 3-0 lead in the second. After Walker Hartman and Liam Stevens reached on back-to-back walks to lead off the inning, Teagan Guckenberg bunted the two along and reached when the throw to first base popped out of the glove of second baseman Nick Bretl, who was covering on the play. The mistake allowed Hartman to come around and score. Two batters later, Abe Laggis took an 0-2 pitch to shallow left for a bloop single that put the Rebels up three.
Antigo, a notoriously good two-strike hitting team, came up clutch in the fourth to trim the lead to one off starter Martin Hoger. Noskowiak hit an 0-2 pitch to left with two out in the inning to score Logan Doering and get Antigo on the board. Langseth followed with a single to center on a 2-2 pitch that scored Noskowiak.
The Rebels were unable to cash in on opportunities to tack on insurance runs in the sixth and seventh. The team got runners on the corners with one out in the sixth, but Liam Stevens struck out looking and Guckenberg grounded out to second to end the inning. Back-to-back singles by Danny Zuiker and Laggis in the seventh gave Rhinelander a glimmer of hope, but Hoger grounded into an inning-ending double play. From there, reliever Eli Fleischman sat down nine straight Rebels until Hoger's two-out single in the 10th.
"We just could not get that clutch hit to put them away," Huhnstock said. "It's sad and unfortunately we had some hard-hit balls that Antigo made good plays on. They're a quality ball team. They've been through a lot of big games with state tournament experience both in high school and legion ball the last couple years. Hat's off to them and we've got to work just a little bit harder."
Hoger was relieved after six innings as he neared the 105-pitch daily maximum. Reliever Isaac Bixby worked out of a bases loaded jam, that included a pair of intentional walks, to get Noskowiak to fly out to center and force extra innings. After setting down the top three in the Antigo lineup in order in the eighth, Bixby worked out of another spot in the ninth after back-to-back one-out hits by Cody Urban and Doering. Following a Fleischman sacrifice, Bixby got Derek Moravec to fly out to left to send the game to the 10th.
Hoger allowed three runs on nine hits over six innings in a no decision with four strikeouts. Bixby went three-plus innings, allowing an unearned run on four hits. All three walks he issued were intentional.
Rhinelander got another strong outing on the mound in Monday's first game as Randolph struck out 10 over 6 2/3 innings against Pulaski, running up against the pitching limit one out shy of a complete game.
"Our pitchers done a whale of a job. They kept us in the game against very good teams," Huhnstock said.
Rhinelander - plagued by a slow start when the tournament opened Friday night against Pulaski, reversed that trend Monday night - jumping out to a 6-0 lead after three innings. Dreifuerst and Hartman both scored on passed balls in the second to put the Rebels on the board and Rhinelander tacked on four more runs in the third. Dreifuerst hit a two-run single with the bases loaded and one out in the third and Hartman followed with an RBI single to left. The two then executed a double steal of second and home that allowed Dreifuerst to score.
Pulaski scored single runs in the fourth and fifth, but Randolph was able to strike out the side in the sixth after allowing a leadoff triple to Jake Neitzel to maintain a four-run lead. Rhinelander tacked on an insurance run in the seventh as Randolph doubled down the line and scored on a two-out base hit by Guckenberg.
Rhinelander finished 2-2 in the tournament, rebounding after losing the opening 9-6 to Pulaski in a game that was suspended for nearly two days following a severe thunderstorm that halted play after five innings with Pulaski ahead 9-1.
"With the weather and the goofy schedule and stuff, I'm just glad we were able to get to where we were," Huhnstock said. "Nobody put their heads down. It all started when we picked up our suspended game and put a bunch of runs on the board to get some momentum going."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
Comments:
You must login to comment.