May 3, 2021 at 8:38 a.m.
Hodag baseball downs Lakeland twice in return to the diamond
Hodag baseball downs Lakeland twice in return to the diamond
A long wait between games - 23 months and one day, to be exact - will have that effect.
The Hodags worked through the jitters and started the season with a home-and-home sweep over the Thunderbirds, winning 7-0 Thursday in Minocqua before coming home on Friday to an 11-4 victory.
"This was a great day. I probably was never more nervous than I ever was before, because you just don't know," Waksmonski said following Thursday's win. "We didn't know what we had, what they had. There was so much unknown going into today."
Rhinelander was sharp in the opener. Isaac Bixby struck out 11 in a complete game, two-hit effort Thursday while sophomore Sam Schneider drove home four runs from the cleanup spot in the order. Joe Schneider was not as sharp on the mound Friday, with eight strikeouts and eight walks over 5 2/3 innings, but the Hodags strung together three big innings and all nine members of the starting lineup contributed in the form of runs, hits and/or RBIs.
"It is still early in the season, but the difference I thought between the two games was we executed our pitches with Isaac on the mound and, today, we struggled with execution," Waksmonski said. "But, for the most part, what's been consistent is we've been able to find some production in different spots in our order and guys are finding their own little niches to contribute. We just kind of grow from there."
Rhinelander 7, Lakeland 0
Rhinelander's bats broke up what was shaping up to be a pitchers' duel between Bixby and Lakeland counterpart Alex Fortier on Thursday. The two starting pitchers combined to strike out 22 batters, but the Hodags were able to make more contact the second and third times through the order.
Quinn Lamers legged out an infield hit to second to keep the inning going in the third inning and Sam Schneider followed by taking a 2-1 pitch deep to right for a double and a 2-0 Hodag lead. The two came up big again for Rhinelander in the fifth inning as Lamers' one-out double to right plated Bixby before Schneider hit a bloop single to right, scoring two more runs.
"It took a while to get going but, again, when we got runners in scoring position early in the game we had some real clutch hits," Waksmonski said. "Sammy Schneider obviously had four big RBIs for us in the beginning of the game to give us that lead. That's just incalculable to have those two-out RBIs like that."
Rhinelander tacked on single insurance runs in the sixth and the seventh. Tim Fox reached on a two-out error in the sixth, stole second, got to third on a wild pitch and scored on an Isaac Bixby single. Lamers walked in the seventh, took second on a wild pitch, stole third and scored on a Ryan Jamison grounder.
All of the run support was more than enough for Bixby, who was hardly threatened in an efficient 89-pitch effort. Only once did Lakeland have more than one runner on base. That came in the sixth as Josh Wagendorf led off with a hit then was called safe at second after the umpires ruled that Jamison failed to step on second base following an Erik Albertus grounder. Bixby promptly struck out Alex Fortier and Keaton Brewer-Crownhart to end the threat.
Bixby, the only player on Rhinelander's roster who had pitched at the varsity level prior to 2021, certainly delivered in his season debut.
"I joked going into the game that I kind of expected that out of him because no one's worked harder than him the last two years as far as pitching, getting himself prepared, transforming his body and it showed tonight," Waksmonski said. "Obviously, we can't expect a one- or two-hitter every single night, but to be able to go out and dominate and be around the zone with his fastball and be able to throw his array of pitches and have command over all of those pitches was impressive to see."
Lakeland had only one other real threat in the game. Max Toijala hit a two-out single in front of a diving Ben Sinclair in left in the third. Albertus followed with a line drive to center that Fox made a diving catch on to save a run and retire the side.
"Tim Fox did a great job in center tracking some ball for us," Waksmonski said. "The two hardest balls Lakeland hit, he was able to track down. One was going back on a ball and then he made a nice, diving play. They had a runner on base, so if that ball gets down, it keeps the inning going and you don't know what happens. It was a tight ball game at that point, but to get us out of there, that was a tremendous play."
Joe Schneider, Lamers and Sam Schneider each had two hits for the Hodags in the win.
Rhinelander 11, Lakeland 4
Just like on Thursday, it took the Hodag bats a couple of innings to figure out a Lakeland southpaw, but once they did, they scored runs in bunches.
Rhinelander scored eight runs between the third and fourth innings, keying the two-game sweep.
Joe Schneider, Lamers and Sam Schneider each drove in two runs and the Hodags collected 13 hits in all in the contest.
"It was nice to see our bats were able to find some holes again and score some runs," Waksmonski said.
Down 1-0 in the third, the Hodags got a rally started with the bottom of the order as Ian Miller and Fox drew leadoff walks. Joe Schneider singled in Miller, followed by an RBI double to right by Lamers. Schneider later scored on a wild pitch.
Fox again keyed a rally, drawing a two-walk in the fourth to keep the inning alive. Bixby followed with a RBI double past the hole between first and second. Joe Schneider found a similar spot through the right side of the infield to plate another run. He then beat out a force play at second on a Lamers grounder that allowed Bixby to score. Sam Schneider followed with his fifth and sixth RBIs of the series on a single to right.
"Again, timely hitting and finding holes," Waksmonski said. "Like I said to the guys afterward, it wasn't like we were hitting the ball sharply around the yard, but we were finding the ground balls that were finding holes and we were running bases, I thought, pretty well once we hit the ball."
Lakeland tried to make things interesting as Toijala doubled and scored on an Albertus grounder in the fifth. Joe Schneider issued back-to-back two out walks in the sixth to end his time on the mound. Toijala and Albertus greeted Lamers to the mound with back-to-back RBI hits to make it 8-4 before Lamers fanned Alex Fortier to end the threat.
Rhinelander answered in the bottom of the inning, as the first four batters reached safely. Devyn Orth hit an RBI single over a drawn-in infield, Kolby Ridderbusch followed with a sacrifice fly and Fox drove in a run on a fielder's choice.
Lakeland had all the momentum early in the game, taking a 1-0 lead in the first as Albertus walked eventually scored thanks to a couple of wild pitches by Joe Schneider. In the bottom of the inning Toijala made a diving grab on a Lamers ball hit to the gap in right center, which robbed Lamers of extra bases, an RBI and turned into an inning-ending double play as Joe Schneider was doubled off first.
Lakeland was in position to add to that lead in the second after Worrin Burgess and Gavin Thompson both walked to start the inning, but Joe Schneider struck out Leland Valliere and then got ground outs from Toijala and Albertus to end the threat.
"The turning point I thought was the second inning," Waksmonski said. "We had the two walks to start the inning and we got out of that without giving up any runs. That was big right there. That kind of settled Joe in, settled our whole defense in and then we were able to kind of start chipping away and started getting better at bats off of Peterson."
Rhinelander had a 13-4 edge in the hit department on Friday. Joe Schneider had three hits in the game while Lamers, Jamison and Miller each had two hits. Fox, despite having only one hit, had reached safely in his first six plate appearances to start the season. That streak ended in the sixth on Friday with his RBI fielder's choice.
"Timmy's doing a great job in that 9-hole getting on base. Teams are paying attention. Lakeland, whenever Tim was on first, they were always looking over at him," Waksmonski said.
Up next
The Hodags had an early season test as defending conference champ Medford was set to come to Rhinelander Monday in a game that was scheduled to take place after the deadline for this edition.
Rhinelander is home again today to face Wausau East in a non-conference contest before traveling to Medford Thursday to finish up the series with the Raiders.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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