May 24, 2021 at 9:00 a.m.
Rhinelander baseball scratches out win over Pines
Rhinelander baseball scratches out win over Pines
Sam Schneider collected his team-leading 18th RBI to push across the go-ahead run in the fifth inning, and the Hodags got a combined 12 strikeouts from Isaac Bixby and Quinn Lamers to defeat the Eagles 3-1 in Eagle River.
It was a much different contest than last Monday's 10-0 five-inning rout for Rhinelander over Pines. Eagles' ace Mitch McCanles struck out seven and scattered six hits over six innings, but the Hodags produced just enough offense to secure the series sweep.
"Northland Pines was very determined tonight," Hodag coach Joe Waksmonski said. "You could tell from the get-go. They got behind their ace in (McCanles) and you could tell with their energy, the way they were walking around, they felt really good about themselves tonight. Conversely, our dugout, we had to kind of overcome our activities at the high school. They had the Olympic Day and a lot of energy was spent during the day, unfortunately, but it was a good, gritty win. It was just one of those nights where you had to battle for each and every run."
Bixby and Lamers drew back-to-back walks off McCanles in the top of the fifth to set the stage for Sam Schneider, who took a 1-2 pitch to right field for the go-ahead run. The Hodags got an insurance run off reliever Brady Beyer in the seventh thanks to three walks and a sacrifice fly by Walker Hartman that plated Bixby.
Bixby cruised against Pines on Monday in a 53-pitch effort over four innings that allowed him to come back Thursday and make another start against the Eagles. Pines was much more picky at the plate in the second meeting, driving Bixby's pitch count to 89 through four innings. He was able to squeak out one more inning on a nine-pitch effort in the bottom of the fifth, which included a diving catch in right by Kolby Ridderbusch on a liner by McCanles.
"They did a great job of that," Waksmonski said. "They knew what Isaac was going to bring and they knew what the strike zone was going to be tonight. They had a lot of great approaches as well, hitting the ball to right, right-center.
"Kolby Ridderbusch, when he came on I thought he did a whale of a job. He made a couple of big plays for us."
Lamers took the hill in the sixth and worked around a one-out pinch-hit double by Jack Bunter as he struck out the side. The Hodag senior then induced three straight fly ball outs in the seventh to secure the save.
"That's a perfect role for Quinn," Waksmonski said. "He's one of those guys, he has the mentality (where) he's very confident. He'll step on the mound and no situation is too big for him."
Pines got on the board in the second inning as Matt Szafranski reached on a leadoff error and eventually scored on a two-out single past shortstop by Isaac Vedder.
Rhinelander answered to tie the game in the top of the third as Tim Fox led off with a double and, following a couple of fly outs, scored on Joe Schneider's single up the middle.
"They were able to get the job done. It wasn't so much the gapper or the triple or the long ball, it was the sac fly, the RBI ground outs, little things that we had to do to get those run in," Waksmonski said.
Bixby (4-1) struck out nine and allowed an unearned run on five hits over five innings to get the win. Joe Schneider collected two hits at the plate for the Hodags.
Northland Pines got two hits each from Isaac Vedder and Kadin Kroeplin.
Rhinelander moved into a three-way tie for second in the GNC at 5-3 in league play with the win, couple with a Mosinee win over Tomahawk and a 12-4 loss by Antigo at Medford that clinched the conference championship for the Raiders.
The Hodags have two games against last-place Tomahawk this week, including one that took place yesterday in Tomahawk following deadline for today's edition. The Hodags host Merrill in non-conference play before finishing out the set with the Hatchets at home on Thursday.
"It's going to be a week very similar to what we had this week with the three games Monday, Tuesday, Thursday," Waksmonski said. "We're just going to kind of relax tonight. We'll come back to practice, work on a couple of things and be ready to go for Monday."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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