June 24, 2021 at 8:40 a.m.
Attention turns to legion season for Rhinelander baseball
Attention turns to legion season for Rhinelander baseball
Fresh off the Rhinelander High School baseball team's trip to the WIAA sectional finals on Tuesday many of the same players swapped uniforms and pants to kick off a condensed American Legion baseball season for the Rhinelander Post 7 Rebels.
That season got underway Wednesday night with a home contest against Mosinee and continues tomorrow in a triangular on the road against Bonduel and a very familiar foe, Antigo.
It's going to be a quick sprint of a regular season, only 3 1/2 weeks before regionals starting July 23.
Rebels manager Dan Huhnstock said he is optimistic for the Legion season as most of this year's varsity squad transitions straight from high school to legion play.
"With the delayed playoffs for high school this year, it is a very quick turnaround. We could be playing high school one day and legion the very next day," he said. "Most of the varsity squad is going to play. We got the nucleus of the squad and five off JV. No returning people from last year's graduating class."
The Rebels are part of the Great Northern Legion Conference again after sharing the conference title with Medford in 2019.
The Legion season was canceled last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tomahawk is back as part of the GNLC this year, giving the league six teams. They will play a single round-robin schedule culminating in a six-team conference tournament the week of July 12. The GNLC include all Great Northern Conference spring clubs, with the exception of Antigo.
That's not to say Rhinelander will not see plenty of Antigo, whose moniker for Legion play is Typhoon. After taking two of three from Antigo during the spring season, round four between the teams comes this Saturday in Antigo. Regional pairings have not yet been determined, but there's a good chance Rhinelander and Antigo will cross paths again in the legion postseason. If they do, Rhinelander will have a distinct advantage this year.
The Legion Class AA state tournament is in Antigo this year, meaning that the Typhoon get an automatic berth into the event. Should Antigo win its regional, then the regional runner-up will also get into the state field.
It's a similar scenario in 2010 where Merrill won its regional as the state host. Rhinelander got in as the regional runner-up and then went on to win the state tournament.
"It reminds me back in 2010 when we won the state tournament where two teams from our regional were able to play in the state tournament," Huhnstock said. "We were the second team, taking second in our regional that year. We were able to get into the tournament and went on a really nice run."
In addition to this weekend's triangular in Antigo, the Rebels will host Merrill in a non-conference game this coming Monday and will take part in Merrill's annual tournament July 9-11. In addition to a showdown with GNLC favorite Medford, the Rebels will face Holmen, Merrill and D.C. Everest in the five-team event.
Huhnstock views the Merrill Invite as a "raise the bar" tournament in preparation for the postseason.
"That gives us a little bit of a look at some teams were not all that familiar with, how to prep for them and see where we stand once we get out of the Great Northern," he said.
The Rebels have not made it to the state tournament since 2012. They were knocked out in the regional championship by Antigo in 2018 and 2019. Huhnstock said, with a little luck, this could be the year the Rebels make it back.
"My goal is, as always, to be playing great ball at the end of the season, get some of the younger kids some experience and playing time, but gel toward the end of the season," he said. "My goal every year is to get to the state tournament and win the state tournament."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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