July 24, 2019 at 11:47 a.m.
Northwoods fastpitch softball teams reach semifinals in Tomahawk tournament
Northwoods fastpitch softball teams reach semifinals in Tomahawk tournament
Northwoods entered teams in the 12U and 14U brackets of the tournament, which featured several teams from throughout north-central Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Both squads lost in the semifinals in their respective divisions.
The tournament was plagued by weather, with all of Saturday's play rained out, which compressed Sunday's play into one-hour games, but Rhinelander High School softball coach D.J. DeMeyer - who oversees Northwoods' 14U squad - said things went about as smoothly as they could, under the circumstances.
"I give a lot of credit to the Tomahawk tournament crew there. The fields were in great condition on Sunday for getting a couple of inches of rain on Saturday. Overall, the tournament was a success. We played well," he said.
14U
The 14U squad won its first game of the tournament, defeating Wausau West Gold 6-1 on Friday afternoon. Northwoods scored twice in the second, three times in the third and once in the fifth inning of the contest.
"It was a good victory. We never were in harm's way, I guess," DeMeyer said.
Northwoods collected seven hits in the contest, led by a two-hit effort from Addi DeMeyer. Madison Stebbeds, Abigale Johnson, Ashlyn Grimm, Abigail Bixby and Chloe Felde had the other hits.
Saturday's rains forced Northwoods' second game back to 7:30 a.m. Sunday. Northwoods rallied for six runs in the fourth and final inning of the one-hour game to take a 9-5 win.
Stebbeds had two hits in the contest for Northwoods, as did Haley Ives. Other hits came from DeMeyer, Tommie Jo Springer and Grimm.
Northwoods fell 7-5 in the semifinal game to Marshfield Orange. Northwoods scored four times in the first, but Marshfield responded with three in the bottom half of the inning and four in the third to take the lead. Northwoods got the tying run to the plate after Stebbeds tripled with two outs in the fourth, but Johnson was called out on a disputed third-strike call to end the contest.
"The competition was really good, good pitching. We had some defensive errors that hurt us. Our pitching was solid, just some untimely defensive errors across the board," DeMeyer said. "Overall, I thought we were a top- two team. I thought we should have won that last game. I don't think we were going to beat the other Marshfield team. They had one of their varsity pitchers pitching and I think she gave up only one hit the whole weekend."
Stebbeds went 3-for-3 with a pair of triples in the game, Grimm was 2-for-2. DeMeyer, Erin Griesbach and Springer also collected hits.
DeMeyer and Grimm, from Abbotsford, split pitching duties over the weekend.
12U
Before a nasty storm rolled through the area, the Northwoods Fastpitch 12U team played a tournament in Tomahawk last weekend.
The team's first game came against Wausau on Friday afternoon, taking a 9-4 loss. On Sunday, they started bracket play with a 7-3 win against Everest. Later that day, they lost 4-3 to Tomahawk in the semifinals.
"These kids never throw in the towel - they always think we can win no matter who we're playing or the game situation," said Northland Pines head coach Jason Schueller, who oversees the 12U squad. "They are great teammates to one another and always give max effort and attitude."
Appleton upcoming
Northwoods will field teams in the 12U, 14U and 16U divisions in a tournament in Appleton Aug. 2-4. DeMeyer said that tournament, the final for Northwoods this summer, will pose the toughest competition of the year.
"If we can get out of there with a couple wins, that will be successful for us, being from a small town," he said. "There are going to be some big teams there, but that's what we want, to ramp up the competition."
Lakeland Times sports writer Brett LaBore contributed to this report.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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