May 6, 2021 at 8:45 a.m.
Hodag baseball clipped by Medford, Wausau East
Hodag baseball clipped by Medford, Wausau East
The Hodags managed only two hits off Medford ace Caleb Guden and dropped a 3-1 contest against the reigning Great Northern Conference champs Monday at Stafford Field. A day later, a couple of key double plays plagued the Hodags as they fell to Wausau East, 6-5.
"Just some rough at-bats where we're getting into good hitters counts, but we're just not doing anything with the pitches," RHS baseball coach Joe Waksmonski said following Tuesday's game against East, which dropped Rhinelander to 2-2 on the season.
Medford 3, Rhinelander 1
Both of Rhinelander's hits Monday against the Raiders came off the bat off sophomore cleanup hitter Sam Schneider. But the Hodags couldn't get enough run support for starter Isaac Bixby, who went the distance for the second start in a row. Medford tagged Bixby for nine hits, including two strings of three in a row that resulted in the Raiders' only runs.
Despite the result, Waksmonski said he was proud of how his team competed against a quality outfit.
"It was going to be a high-quality high school baseball game. That was probably the most exciting part," he said. "As I told our players afterward, out of the three games we played so far, this is clearly the best that we have played from an energy standpoint, being focused, being into the game, being locked in. It was exciting to see."
"We were able to match them and stay in the game," Waksmonski added.
Rhinelander, trailing 2-1 in the sixth, had some momentum going as Quinn Lamers walked and Sam Schneider singled to give the Hodags two on with only one out. However, Medford's Nate Doriot made a nice play on a line drive down the left field line by Ryan Jamison to make a catch and perhaps deny Rhinelander the tying and go-ahead runs.
Lamers stole third after that and Medford did not bite as Schneider tried to give himself up in a rundown between first and second to allow Lamers a chance to make a break for home plate. Schneider took second on defensive indifference and Guden struck out Devyn Orth to end the threat.
"Jamo hit that shot down the line and, if that ball gets past the left fielder, that's two runs right there. It was just a well-played high school baseball game," Waksmonski said.
Medford then tacked on an insurance run in the top of the seventh as Guden hit a two-out double and scored on a single by Spike Alexander.
Tim Fox reached on a two-out error in the seventh that forced Guden from the mound after reaching his 100-pitch maximum for the day, but reliever Logan Baumgartner got Bixby to ground out to end the game.
The Hodags worked out of a two-on, one-out jam in the first, but Bixby was stung by the bottom half of the Raider order in the second. Blaine Seidl led off with a double and scored on a Baumgartner single. Brigham Kelley added a base knock. He and Baumgartner were bunted along by Nate Retterath before Sam Mudgett grounded out to second, scoring Baumgartner and giving Medford a 2-0 lead.
That's how the score remained until the fourth when Lamers led off with a walk and Sam Schneider doubled to give the Hodags runners at second and third with nobody out. Rhinelander was only able to get one run out of it, however. Lamers scored on a Jamison grounder, but Orth and Jacksen Smith both struck out to end the inning.
Guden (2-0), who tossed a five-inning no-hitter in his first outing of the spring April 27 against Northland Pines, struck out seven and walked four over 6 2/3 innings for Medford.
"Offensively, when you have a pitcher like that, it's going to be a tough night," Waksmonski said. "It's all about the little things, finding a way to put the ball in play. Obviously, Sammy did a great job taking what Caleb Guden was giving him and going the other way. We had a couple of other guys that did the same thing, but they made some outstanding plays in the outfield."
Bixby (1-1) struck out three and walked one in a 99-pitch effort for the Hodags. Despite the loss, Waksmonski said he was excited to see how Bixby and the team responded to some early adversity.
"I was excited to see the resiliency of our team. Just to stay in the game, we could have easily hung our head after they came out right away with their bats swinging and scored a couple runs," Waksmonski said. "They were hitting the ball around the yard a little bit. We could have hung our heads right there and stopped. But we stopped them, got a little momentum going back our way, but just couldn't quite get us back over the top."
Wausau East 6, Rhinelander 5
The crispness that the Hodags displayed Monday was not there on Tuesday. The team committed a season-high three errors and fell victim to a couple of costly double play balls that proved to be the difference in the game.
Trailing by a run in the bottom of the seventh Sam Schneider reached on an error and was pinch run for by Kolby Ridderbusch. Orth bunted him to second before Ian Miller hit a looping ball to shallow left center. Ridderbusch took off to third thinking the ball was going to drop, but East shortstop Matt Heinrich tracked down the ball, made the catch and then doubled Ridderbusch off second to end the game.
"That's a tough read," Waksmonski said. "As a coach, you can't really tell them. You have to rely on instinct there and he made an aggressive mistake. He was aggressive about it, and their shortstop made a great play. Let's not forget that part too. It wasn't like it was a can of corn. The shortstop made a really good play on that."
Rhinelander led 2-1 in the third and looked to be in great position to add to the lead as a walk and a couple of errors loaded the bases with one out, but Jordan Kuczmarski rolled into a double play at short on what Waksmonski thought was a close play at first.
"One call didn't go our way, obviously, and that's a huge run right there in a one-run ball game, and then obviously the one at the end," he said.
East carried the momentum into the fourth and took the lead as, with the bases loaded and one out, Kuczmarski bobbled a ground ball to first by Eli Pagel and then made a late throw to home plate. Lane Juedes followed with a sacrifice fly to put East ahead, 3-2.
The Lumberjacks added three in the fifth as they got to Jamison on the mound. East had three straight hits to start the inning, including a two-run triple by Heinrich to the right field corner. Heinrich later scored on a wild pitch to give East a 6-2 lead.
Jamison, in his first varsity start, took the loss for Rhinelander. He allowed five earned runs on six hits with seven strikeouts and two walks over five innings.
"The name of the game is Wausau East made the adjustments at the plate," Waksmonski said. "They got around to Ryan the second, third time through. On our end, we did not make the adjustments necessary. After we scored the two runs in the first inning that things we going to be clicking the whole game, but then our bats went to sleep in the second, third and fourth inning."
Smith singled home a run in the fifth and Miller singled and scored on a wild pitch to make it 6-4. Fox walked in the sixth and came around on a sacrifice fly by Joe Schneider.
Heinrich drove in three runs for East on the day, including a sacrifice fly in the first after Logan Zaitz singled to lead off the game. Sam Schneider collected two more RBIs on a double in the bottom of the first to give Rhinelander a 2-1 lead.
Juedes went five innings to get the win for Rhinelander. Freshman Caden Werth, who had two hits in his varsity debut, pitched the final two innings for East to earn the save.
Up next
The Hodags got another crack at the Raiders Thursday in Medford, in a game that was played after press time for today's edition. Rhinelander travels to Rice Lake for a non-conference doubleheader tomorrow and wraps up a four-game road trip at Mosinee this coming Tuesday.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
Comments:
You must login to comment.