July 12, 2021 at 9:08 a.m.
Rhinelander 12Us win pool in district play
Rhinelander 12Us win pool in district play
The Hodags capped off pool play Wednesday with a dominating 12-2 victory in five innings over Merrill at Hodag Park. Rhinelander scored the first 11 runs unanswered, pounded out 12 hits and ended up finishing the game via the mercy rule in the fifth inning.
Rhinelander, serving as the visiting team as determined by a coin flip, led 1-0 off a Jackson Weinzatl RBI single in the second and broke the game open with a six-run third.
Conner Rappley led things off with a single and came around after Sawyer Bishop's base hit was misplayed in center field. Bishop later scored on a wild pitch while Vince White walked and scored on an Abe Gretzinger single. Weinzatl, serving as a pinch runner after James Webb reached on a fielder's choice, scored on a passed ball. Aiden Lueder singled and scored on a Parker McCone ground out while Cooper Jahn reached on a fielder's choice and came around on a single by Josh Willoughby to make it 7-0.
The Hodags tacked on four more in the fourth without the aid of a hit. McCone was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded before Willoughby, Rappley and Bishop drew back-to-back-to-back bases loaded walks.
Merrill scored twice in the bottom of the fourth to extend the game, but Rhinelander plated what proved to be the game-clinching run in the fifth as Lueder doubled and scored on a single by Weinzatl.
On the mound, the Hodags were perfect through the first three innings. White started and struck out five of the six batters he faced in two innings of work. Gretzinger pitched a perfect third with three strikeouts before hitting a batter to lead off the fourth. Rappley came on to pitch after that and allowed two hits over the final two innings with four strikeouts.
Offensively, Rappley and Lueder each collected three hits for the Hodags in the game while Gretzinger and Weinzatl had two hits each. Weinzatl, McCone and Willoughby each collected two RBIs.
Rhinelander was set to begin the second round of tournament play Monday in Wausau against Appleton National, which was the runner-up team of a pool including of Antigo, Appleton American and champion Kaukauna.
Wausau American, which defeated Wausau National 10-0 was the second team to advance out of the Rhinelander pool. Wausau American, Wausau National and Merrill all finished 1-2 in pool play and Wausau American advanced via a tiebreaker based on total runs allowed in the pool.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
Comments:
You must login to comment.