July 15, 2021 at 9:08 a.m.
Rebels fall to Everest despite throwing no hitter
Rebels fall to Everest despite throwing no hitter
Though Everest did not record a hit, there were too many walks, wild pitches and errors for the Rebels to overcome and it all added up to an 8-6 loss in the championship game of the Merrill Invite at Athletic Park.
Schneider - making his first pitching appearance for Rhinelander since a WIAA sectional final no-decision against Denmark on June 22 - walked 10 batters and hit another over 5 1/3 innings.
Rebels manager Dan Huhnstock said he was once part of a game where a team lost despite tossing a no-hitter, but never a game quite like Sunday's.
"This was a different game," he said. "Obviously Joe Schneider really struggled with command early in the game, really gutted it out and found a way to keep us in the game and give up no hits.
"Unfortunately for us, we did pay the price and we weren't able to pick up enough runs to cover it."
Rhinelander led 4-1 in the second when Schneider's command woes intensified. He issued back-to-back walks before hitting Hayden Davidowski with a 3-2 pitch to load the bases and then walked Landon Mezei on four straight pitches to force in a run. Two wild pitches during Tanner Graham's at-bat allowed two more runs to score before Graham grounded out to second to force in Mezei and give Everest a 5-4 lead.
With ace Isaac Bixby unavailable to throw due to arm soreness, and the remainder of those on the squad with varsity pitching experience expended earlier in the three-day tournament, the Rebels had little choice but to ride Schneider as long as they could on Sunday.
"At the end of a tournament, everybody's pitching is spent, so it was huge that Joe was able to find a way to battle through and keep us in the game," Huhnstock said.
Everest tacked on a run in the fifth as Graham walked, got to second on a ground out, stole third and scored when catcher Sam Schneider's throw on the steal sailed into left field.
Schneider left with one out in the sixth after reaching the daily 105-pitch limit with the bases loaded after walking two batters and inducing two fielder's choices - one of which turned into an error when the umpires ruled Ryan Jamison off the bag on a force play at second base.
Everest tacked on two insurance runs with Kolby Ridderbusch pitching. Mezei grounded back to shortstop, but Quinn Lamers throw home one-hopped off Sam Schneider's chest protector, allowing Mitch Danielski to score. Elijah Schmidt scored on a fielder's choice by Graham.
Those two runs loomed large in the seventh as both Jamison and Walker Hartman walked and scored to start the inning, cutting the lead to 8-6. Rhinelander got the tying runs into scoring position with one out, but Logan Schmoeger struck out and Tim Fox flew out to center to end the game.
Prior to the seventh, the Hodags lone runs came in the second. Sam Schneider singled and scored on a wild pitch before Lamers singled home Owen Kurtz. Jamison doubled two batters later to put Rhinelander up by three runs.
The Rebels had runners in scoring position on three other occasions, but Joe Schneider hit into double plays in the fourth and sixth, and Cody Everson struck out with a runner on second in the fifth, to end those threats. In all Rhinelander stranded nine runners - eight of them in scoring position.
"We had opportunities. We left a lot of runners on base, just could not come up quite with the clutch hit to overcome Joe's start," Huhnstock said.
The loss dropped Rhinelander to 5-3 overall on the summer. The Rebels were scheduled to play Medford in a make-up game on Wednesday, but that was rained out. Both Medford and Rhinelander finished 3-1 in league play, but Medford received the No. 1 seed for the GNLC tournament based on a better season run differential. The Hodags will host either Minocqua or the winner of the Northwoods-Mosinee quarterfinal game tonight at Stafford Field in the league semifinals.
The league championship game is set for this coming Monday ahead of the Class AA Regionals, which will begin July 23 with Rhinelander hosting Antigo in a five-team, double-elimination tournament.
"We've got two weeks of ball left for sure - league tournament, regional tournament and, Lord willing, the state tournament," Huhnstock said.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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