June 21, 2021 at 8:58 a.m.
Sectional bound
Hodags outlast Shawano in extra innings, end 17-year sectional drought
Sectional bound
Joe Schneider knocked in the go-ahead run in the ninth inning and Devyn Orth pitched 3 1/3 scoreless innings as the Hodags recovered after squandering a 4-0 lead to defeat Shawano 5-4 and win a WIAA Division 2 regional title at Memorial Park.
It's the first time in 17 years that the Hodags have advanced to the sectional round of the WIAA tournament. They will play Seymour this morning in a sectional semifinal in Wrightstown.
Rhinelander has played in six regional finals since last winning one. Joe Waksmonski has seen it all - blowout losses, surprise upsets, extra-inning defeats - as the Hodags' skipper in all six of those games. Finally, on Wednesday, Waksmonski saw his team win one.
"For a while I thought we were pretty snake-bit there, but you've got to give credit to our guys," Waksmonski said. "We get to practice and that's probably some of the best words I can say right now. We get to practice for a half more week or whatever that is."
Not only did Joe Schneider knock in the winning run, he went 5 2/3 strong innings starting on the mound and threw out two key baserunners from behind the plate in the late innings.
"We didn't give up today," Schneider said. "I know early in the season, we'd just lay down and have no energy, but he had energy. No matter what the score was we were fighting every single time."
The biggest moment came with two outs in the ninth as Isaac Bixby stood on second after reaching on a fielder's choice and advancing on a ground out by Quinn Lamers that knocked Shawano pitcher Joey Sperberg out of the game due to pitch count.
Schneider took a 1-0 pitch to left off reliever Brandon Bushy, Bixby never stopped running and the Hodags retook the lead.
"They'd been throwing curveballs the whole time. He got me early, probably thought I was aggressive," Schneider said. "I thought the curveball was coming. It did come and I just took it to left."
From there, Orth worked around a leadoff walk in the bottom of the ninth to retire the next three batters, including a strikeout of Jacob Polzin to end it, after the tying run got to third on a throwing error and a groundout.
"I was just trying to stay calm, stay collected, keep my nerves under wraps. I was just trying to stay loose, that's about it," Orth said. "We've been through a lot of highs and lows this season. It's just nice to get to sectionals. It's just super special for the seniors because we get one more game together."
Rhinelander had every reason to fold the tent after watching a 4-0 lead vanish with the bases clear and two out in the sixth. Kaleb Lowney reached to extend the inning as Sam Schneider was unable to handle his grounder to third. That ended Joe Schneider's time on the mound as he reached the daily 100-pitch limit.
Lamers could not put out the fire, walking Zac Jurmu and Ashton Henning before surrendering a bases-clearing double to Andrew Popp that made it 4-3. Waksmonski went to Orth after that. Following a walk, pinch hitter Zach Erdmann singled to left and Popp scored the tying run after the hit got under Ian Miller's glove.
"The wheels were falling off there in the sixth inning," Waksmonski said. "We had a chance to get out of that inning right away, just couldn't do it. You've got to give Shawano credit, they battled back, came up with some clutch hits and tied up the game."
The Hodags jumped out to an early lead, but the offense fizzled against Sperberg, a crafty left-hander. After Bixby walked to lead off the game, Lamers reached on an error on a sacrifice bunt attempt. Joe Schneider followed with a single to left to give Rhinelander the lead. The Hodags eventually loaded the bases with two out and Kolby Ridderbusch delivered a base hit up the middle that put Rhinelander up 3-0 in the first.
The Hodags made it 4-0 in the second as Lamers doubled home Bixby, chasing starter Aiden Berry from the mound. Sperberg came in and, after a Joe Schneider single, induced a double-play ball by Sam Schneider to get out of the jam.
Sperberg kept the Hodags off-balance before reaching his pitch limit in the ninth inning. He recorded nine strikeouts and allowed only three hits in 7 1/3 innings of relief.
"Joey, he was throwing lights out," Waksmonski said. "He had a real tough slider. Our guys had a tough time picking it up and then he was able to locate his fastball on top of that. We don't see a left-handed pitching that often and don't have any coaches that throw left-handed. When we see something like that, it's hard to adjust."
The Hodags went down in order in both the seventh and eight. Shawano got a base runner on with a chance to win it in both of those innings, but Joe Schneider - now catching following his time on the hill -threw out Polzin trying to steal in the seventh to send the game to extra innings. He also cut down Henning trying to steal in the eighth to help get the Hodags to the ninth.
"Joe behind the plate made some absolute clutch, dynamite throws, throwing out base runners twice trying to get into scoring position. Those are clutch plays," Waksmonski said.
Shawano stranded 12 baserunners in the contest and was only 2 for 17 with runners in scoring position - with both hits coming in the game-tying sixth inning. The Hawks had base runners every inning, but Schneider was able to keep them off the board early and Orth was able to keep them off the board late.
"We talk about this every year, every postseason, it's about pitching and defense and which team plays the best in those two areas and come up with some clutch hits," Waksmonski said. "Outside of that sixth inning, we were right there. We were pretty close to shutting them out. Joe had a great start, kept them off balance. They're a really good hitting team. We made a couple of plays behind Joe but, really, it was Joe's dominance on the mound that kept us with the lead early on.
"The thing about Devyn was he was cool, calm and collected. He was getting loose early, getting loose late and, when we brought him in, he was able to come in and throw strikes, calm the waters and all our hitters to collect themselves."
All of that has afforded the Hodags at least one more game. Should they knock off Seymour - which finished behind Shawano in a competitive Bay Conference - this morning, they would take on either Denmark or Winneconne in the sectional finals this afternoon.
But, on Wednesday night, all the team cared about was celebrating an accomplishment that had eluded the Hodags for nearly two decades.
"We've been playing a long time together on travel teams, all-star teams back when we were 9, 10. That's what it feels like right now, just having fun out there," Schneider said.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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