May 22, 2020 at 10:11 a.m.
The lost season: RHS softball
Hodags were gearing up for rebound season
The lost season: RHS softball
Editor's note: This story is part of our continuing series profiling the 2020 Rhinelander High School spring sports teams, recognizing the seniors and looking at what kind of season each team could have had if not for the COVID-19 pandemic.
It's hard to say what the Rhinelander High School softball team would have accomplished this season but, in the eyes of coach D.J. DeMeyer, there was nowhere to go but up.
2019 was a decidedly down year for the Hodags. A mix of injuries and inexperience led to a 2-17 record - Rhinelander's first sub-.500 season since 2011. Both of the team's wins came against Ashland, including one in WIAA tournament play.
Depth was issue last year, with only enough players to fill a varsity squad. The numbers were projected to double this year, with virtually all of last year's team returning plus an incoming group a freshmen who had seen success at the youth level.
"I definitely saw a better season than we had last year," DeMeyer said. "We have a really good group of girls that came up as freshmen. We had some senior leadership coming back."
Here are five key storylines as we dive into the lost season for the RHS softball team.
Who was back
The Hodags only lost one senior to graduation from last year's squad - outfielder Mikayla Evenstad, who hit .167 with four RBIs in Great Northern Conference play as she worked her way back from a lingering knee injury sustained in the 2018 volleyball season.
The list of seniors expected back included plenty of players who saw extended varsity action last year - Brylee Ridderbusch, Ella Mullikin, Sophia McGinnis, Alex Oestreich and Jaiden Thiel.
The team had its top returning offensive players back in junior Hannah Worachek (.294, 1 HR, 4 RBI) and Ridderbusch (.286, 1 RBI).
After fielding three pitchers who had never pitched a varsity inning prior to last season, the Hodags had some experience at the position, led by Oestreich (1-4, 6.17 ERA, 37 K, 42 IP) and Ridderbusch (1-10, 14.26 ERA, 39 K, 43.2 IP).
"Brylee worked throughout the winter. She was looking really good. Alex was throwing too and she looked good. They were hitting their spots, had movement the ball," DeMeyer noted.
The team also had a familiar face back on the coaching staff. Elmer Suess, who did two tours of duty as head coach and led the Hodags to a share of the GNC title in 2012, was back to serve as an assistant to DeMeyer.
"I was excited about that because there's a lot I can learn from him," DeMeyer said of Suess. "Plus, he's a former pitcher for the men's fastpitch and a very good one. There was a lot of excitement coming for this season. Unfortunately, it didn't pan out, but we'll have that excitement for next year, I guess."
Fresh faces
A number of freshmen figured to be in the mix for playing time this year, including Addi DeMeyer, Abigale Bixby, Abigale Johnson and Maddi Roeser. All four were part of the Northwoods co-op U14 travel team last summer - a co-op of players from Rhinelander, Lakeland and Northland Pines - that saw success in a number of tournaments.
Addi DeMeyer, coach DeMeyer's daughter, likely would have figured into the pitching rotation. Bixby figured to provide some additional pitching depth and all four would have had the potential to contribute right away in the varsity lineup.
"Obviously, this freshman class this year didn't get a chance to prove itself on the field this year," coach DeMeyer said. "I've seen them prove themselves on the field. I've been able to coach them in summer ball, but this is a higher level and that's what we wanted to see, how they would react to the higher level. I think a lot of this freshman class would have been pretty successful, not all the time, but they would have had their successful moments, and you build on those."
For the seniors
All of the seniors had their softball playing careers cut short, but the cancellation of the season due the coronavirus was a double whammy for Ella Mullikin, who had earned honorable mention all-conference honors as a catcher in each of the last two seasons. She earned the honor last year despite sustaining a significant knee injury during the team's sixth game of the season against Lakeland that cost her the remainder of the season.
"She worked really hard after that injury," DeMeyer said. "Her goal was to make it back for season. She was catching some in the winter, not a lot, but she was catching and she was fine, she said. She didn't have a lot of pain. We were being very cautious with her catching in the winter. She's caught for years. It wasn't about her catching abilities it was just about if she could handle the pain coming back from that traumatic injury."
As for the rest of this year's senior class, DeMeyer said he will miss every single one of them.
"These seniors have been with me since the eighth grade," he said. "This is my second full four years of coaching these girls. There's some fantastic girls. They all have their own personalities, but they're going to be very successful in life."
Summer school
There could be some opportunities for the team and the players to get in some repetitions this summer, DeMeyer said. As of earlier this month, the youth softball season had not been canceled, and the opportunity for girls to play on the Northwoods co-op travel team remained.
Also, the team is scheduled to have an abbreviated two-week season this summer, culminating with mini round-robin tournaments against Antigo, Lakeland and Three Lakes July 15 and 16.
"It's going to be hard," DeMeyer said of the challenges the summer schedule may bring. "The seniors are going to be working. People get let loose when they can go, there's going to be vacations. We don't know exactly how it's going to work out, but we're going to try to make it work.
"We're going to try to get these younger girls some playing time, too, but it's mostly going to be for the seniors and upperclassmen."
What's next?
The chance to play this summer will be vital for a team that will basically start over next year without this year's senior class, which would take away much of the team's pitching and infield. Worachek and Alexis Engelking would be among the senior leaders on the 2021 squad. Otherwise, the Hodags are looking at another green squad next season.
"We're basically going to have two freshmen classes next year," coach DeMeyer said. "The eighth-grade class, there's some talent there, too. It could get really exciting for us the next couple of years."
Even if the Hodags aren't able to play much ball - individually or collectively - this summer, they could have a leg up on the competition this offseason once the Hodag Sports Complex is complete. The inflatable dome is large enough to equate to the area of two regulation softball fields for practice, and even games, during inclement weather.
"I'm really looking forward to that, and that's going to help us tremendously because when we have our open gyms, we actually have a field," DeMeyer said. "We can play a game, do a scrimmage and have some fun all winter long. These girls, they're going to benefit from that and the coaches will benefit from that too."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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