June 3, 2021 at 8:43 a.m.
Home field heroics
Hodags rally for 4 in the seventh, walk off 11-10 over Antigo
Home field heroics
Sam Schneider's walk-off double with two outs in the seventh was the final punch in a crazy slugfest as the Hodags rallied for eight runs in the final two innings to defeat Antigo 11-10 at Stafford Field.
Rhinelander won despite committing eight errors - most of which helped Antigo stake a 6-0 lead through 3 1/2 innings. The Hodags rallied for three runs in the fourth and took the lead with a four-run sixth, only to see Antigo battle back with four runs in the top of the seventh. Rhinelander answered back with four of its own in the last half inning to pull out the dramatic win.
"It's one of those moments you dream of when you're growing up as a kid," said Sam Schneider, whose game winner gave Rhinelander its first win over Antigo in high school play since 2012. "It's the chance to walk it off, round the bases, get a little water shower."
"They've been a great program for so long, you see that state championship team a couple of years ago," said Quinn Lamers, who scored the winning run. "We knew it was going to be tough today. We knew they were going to battle. They always do, no matter what sport it is, and we just came out on top today."
The wild ending began with the Hodags trailing 6-3 in the sixth. Kolby Ridderbusch led off with an infield hit and Tim Fox added a bloop single to left before Isaac Bixby - who went 5-for-5 on the day - doubled to right center to cut the lead to two. Lamers then drove in Fox on a single to right and Joe Schneider tied it on an RBI grounder that plated Bixby. Two batters later, Walker Hartman singled up the middle and Lamers scored from second, sliding underneath a tag attempt at the plate, to give Rhinelander a 7-6 lead.
The lead was short-lived. Back-to-back doubles by Logan Thomae and Eli Fleischman to lead off the seventh tied the game. Then Connor Kolz singled to give Antigo an 8-7 lead and chase Bixby from the mound.
The Hodags almost got out of the inning with no further damage, but Cole Musolff reached on a two-out infield hit to short, allowing Kolz to score. Dakota Matuszewski also scored on the play as a late throw by Bixby got away and into foul territory.
Rhinelander got an opening to lead off the bottom of the seventh as Ryan Jamison reached on a grounder booted by Jacob Hanus at third. Ridderbusch followed with a double to left and Tim Fox singled up the middle to drive in Jamison and cut the lead to 10-8.
Bixby followed with his fifth hit of the day that plated Ridderbusch. Fox tried to score from second on the play but was caught in a rundown between third and home. Antigo eventually tagged Fox for the first out of the inning, but he ran around long enough to let Bixby, representing the tying run, get all the way to third base.
"Tim knew exactly what to do in that situation," Hodag coach Joe Waksmonski said. "He knew Isaac was on the base paths and Tim was just trying to stay in that rundown long enough to get Isaac as far as he could. He was in it long enough to get Isaac all the way back to third. Even then, I thought he was maybe going to get out of it. That was a great, head's up play by Tim."
Antigo intentionally walked Lamers to get to Joe Schneider, whose sacrifice fly to center tied the game at 10. That brought up Sam Schneider, who was 0-for-4 on the day. Lamers stole second, but Schneider eventually fell behind in the count 1-2, before ambushing a pitch off reliever Will Kubeny.
"When that pitch came in, as soon as he threw it, I knew I would hit it," Schneider said. "It was a curveball outside middle, that's my pitch right there and I just took it ... Once I saw the right fielder was running back and sprinting, I knew there was no chance he was getting it."
The Hodag sophomore picked a great time to collect his team-leading 20th RBI.
"You can tell he's slowly starting to get his swing back into what it was those first couple weeks," Waksmonski said. "You could tell the way he drove that ball to right field, that's the Sam Schneider we saw the first couple of weeks ... He just kept his front side in and he just drove the ball into the corner and there was nothing the right fielder could do about that ball."
Two uncharacteristically bad defensive innings put the Hodags in a 6-0 hole. Kubeny and Musolff both singled to lead off the third, and a passed ball advanced both runners before Austin Schedlbauer grounded to short. Lamers went to third in an effort to keep Kubeny at bay, but the throw got away and allowed Kubeny to score. Musolff then beat a throw home on an Elliott Orgeman grounder to make it 2-0. Thomae singled and Fleischman reached on an error to short before Kolz drove in Orgeman on a sacrifice fly. Then, Jamison misplayed a two-out grounder to second by Matuszewski to allow two runs to score and give Antigo a 5-0 lead.
Musolff had a charmed trip around the base paths in the fourth as he reached on a dropped fly ball by Fox in center, took second on a wild pitch, and got to third when the Hodags misplayed a throw on a grounder by Schedlbauer. One more error scored Musolff as Lamers cut off a throw when Schedlbauer feigned a steal attempt from first. Lamers tried to throw back to third to pick off Musolff, but the throw got away and allowed him to score.
"Defensively, that's not the way you draw it up to say the least," Waksmonski said. "I'm not sure what it is at this point with some of those errors, but we just have to know what to do when the ball's hit to us in some certain situations. Thankfully, there's some time to work on it yet and we'll talk through some of the things, but yeah, you commit eight errors you don't win ball games - usually."
Antigo opened the door with a defensive miscue of its own in the bottom of the fourth as Kubeny and shortstop Jacob Hanus collided on a two-out pop up by Fox to left that allowed Hartman to score. After an infield hit by Bixby, Lamers delivered a two-run single to cut the lead to 6-3.
The Hodags were able to overcome their defensive gaffes with one of their best offensive performances of the year. In all, Rhinelander collected 17 hits - including 13 off Fleischman over the first six innings. The Hodags had at least one hit in every inning and nine hits total over the final two at-bats.
"We got our bats going and we hit the ball well all night, but it seemed like with every hit you could feel the energy build and build and build," Waksmonski said. "We talk until we're blue in the face about how hitting is contagious, so is not hitting, but tonight we proved hitting is contagious. The energy spread and it was a fun one."
Bixby allowed five earned runs on eight hits over six-plus innings in a no-decision. Lamers worked the remainder of the seventh to pick up the win, which carried plenty of significance. Not only did the win guarantee that Rhinelander will finish no worse than tied for second in the GNC, it gave the Hodags on the inside track for a first-round bye for the WIAA tournament. The Hodags received a two-seed with the win, setting up a potential rematch with Antigo, which dropped to the three-seed, in the regional semifinals June 15 at Stafford Field.
"It's just the beginning right now. Obviously, we want to shore up what we have defensively going on, but it's just going to be round one of three, but this was the important one for seeding meeting purposes. For this week, this is probably the most important one," he said.
The Hodags played a home doubleheader against Wisconsin Rapids last night and will finish off the regular season this afternoon at Antigo.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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