April 4, 2022 at 8:59 a.m.
Team preview: RHS baseball
Hodags look to recapture last year's magic with young squad
Team preview: RHS baseball
If the Hodags are going to repeat the feat this year, they will have to do so with a largely new cast of characters.
Due to graduation and other circumstances, Rhinelander will enter the season with another relatively young and unproven roster. The difference is last year most of those players were juniors and seniors after the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of the 2020 season. This year the team may be relying upon a number of underclassmen.
"A big chunk of our season and any success we have - whether it's regular season and especially in the postseason - it's going to depend on how fast they mature as ball players," Hodag coach Joe Waksmonski said.
The Hodags graduated nine seniors off of last year's squad, including No. 1 pitcher Isaac Bixby and strong bats Ian Miller, Quinn Lamers and Walker Hartman. For all intents and purposes, the Hodags lost a 10th member of that squad due to injuries to UW-Stevens Point recruit Joe Schneider.
The senior led the Hodags hitting .397 last spring and was Rhinelander's No. 2 pitcher at 2-5 with a 3.38 ERA. He figured to have an even bigger role this year, but a series of injuries to his left knee during the football and hockey seasons eventually led to surgery. There is an outside chance Schneider could see some limited action should Rhinelander make a push deep into June, but more than likely if Schneider plays in a Rhinelander uniform again, it will come this summer during the American Legion campaign.
"You can't replace a Joe Schneider," Waksmonski said. "It doesn't matter who's actually playing in a spot or how many guys you have to try to fill a role like that, he's a special talent."
That hands the top spot in the rotation to another senior, Ryan Jamison, who was 1-2 with a 6.16 ERA for the Hodags last spring. His numbers improved last summer in Legion play going 3-1 with the Rebels with a 2.63 ERA and 17 strikeouts over 29 1/3 innings.
"He can step into that role and he can have some success too," Waksmonski said. "Joe was obviously more proven into that role whereas (Jamison's) got to step up and grow into that. But, with him, he knows the game. He knows what he's doing. He knows how to prepare and he's got the experience under his belt to come in and do it."
Behind Jamison, seniors Jacksen Smith and Kolby Ridderbusch are the only arms with any sort of varsity experience, limited as it may be. The two combined to throw only five varsity-level innings last year between the high school and Legion programs.
"You look at them growing up, whether it's their travel team, through Little League or Babe Ruth, they were kind of counted up in their travel groups as pitchers," Waksmonski said. "They've been in that role before as far as being counted on to step up and pitch and eat up innings. That's kind of what we're expecting them to do this year."
Smith and Ridderbusch will also be counted on offensively, as will junior catcher Sam Schneider, who got off to a torrid start last spring, but cooled in the summer months. Sam Schneider, Joe's younger brother, hit .324 with 11 doubles and a team-best 24 RBIs last spring, but hit only .238 with four RBIs last summer with the Rebels.
Jamison, Smith, Ridderbusch and Sam Schneider are the only four returning players from last spring's varsity squad. When not pitching, Waksmonski said Jamison will likely play shortstop this year, where Lamers and Bixby platooned last year. Smith could possibly move to first base, where Devyn Orth and Hartman saw time last spring.
Ridderbusch will likely remain in the outfield and Schneider will remain behind the plate.
Offensively, Jamison heated up last summer, hit .417 during the legion season. Ridderbusch hit .250 in the spring and .234 in the summer. Smith was a combined 5 for 36 in limited varsity at bats last year.
Beyond that, there are a number of unknowns. Juniors AJ Turek, Cody Everson, Tyler Morrison and Logan Schmoeger are battling for playing time as are sophomores Owen Kurtz, James Heck, Max Ratty and Adrian Patrone. Waksmonski said freshman Seth Nofftz could also potentially see some time on varsity.
"Between those four or five (underclassmen), if we can get three or four of those guys to hit and produce at the varsity level, we'll figure out where they're going to play," Waksmonski said. "I've always said we're going to try to find the eight or nine best bats in our lineup and then we'll try to figure out positions from there. That's really what we're going to have to go with this year."
Luckily for the team, Mother Nature has dealt it a bit of a reprieve. Last Thursday's scheduled opener at Wausau East as postponed due to snow. Though, as of press time, no other games had come off the schedule, a late thaw likely puts non-conference games today at Merrill and Saturday at Shawano in doubt.
The Hodags are slated to open GNC play April 18 at home against Tomahawk. Medford, which has won the conference each of the last two years, is picked to be the favorite once again.
"They've got two big guns at the top of their pitching rotation with Caleb Guden and Logan Baumgartner," Waksmonski said. "They had a nice JV team last year and nice Legion squad last year as well. They've got a lot of talent coming up, I know (Medford coach) Justin Hraby's son, Tanner, he's a sophomore now. The coach was coaching that group the whole way through so I'm pretty sure the younger group will probably have some ball players in those classes as well."
Waksmonski noted that Antigo figures to reload with a talented group of players coming up from the junior varsity and junior Legion levels. Mosinee will likely also be in the mix with the addition of Wausau West transfer Keagan Jirschele.
"We'll probably be in the middle of the pack, but I don't see us backing down to those teams," Waksmonski said. "I don't see those teams being able to just flat out beat us and 10-run us in games. I think our games with them will be competitive. If we have a shot at the end of the season, it's going to be depending on how quickly we can get our sophomores to grow and mature."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
WEATHER SPONSORED BY
E-Editions
Latest News
E-Editions
Events
August
To Submit an Event Sign in first
Today's Events
No calendar events have been scheduled for today.
Comments:
You must login to comment.