June 27, 2022 at 8:10 a.m.
Rebels roll Crandon in rematch 10-0
Rebels roll Crandon in rematch 10-0
Rhinelander broke things open with seven runs over its final two innings to defeat Crandon 10-0 in Great Northern Legion Conference play at Crandon High School Thursday. The game was a make-up of a contest that was rained out in Rhinelander June 15.
Isaac Bixby and Ryan Jamison allowed a hit each in three-inning stints and the Rebels finally pulled away late despite leaving 12 runners on base during the contest.
"It was a pretty good, all-around team effort tonight," Rebels manager Dan Huhnstock said. "We got some guys in with some pitching. We had a little bit of hitting up and down the lineup and some great defensive play behind us again."
Rhinelander, serving as the home team for the make-up game, jumped on Crandon right away for three runs in the bottom of the first. Bixby singled followed by walks from Jamison and Joe Schneider to load the bases with nobody out. Sam Schneider and Jacksen Smith followed with RBI singles to make it 2-0. After strikeouts by Owen Kurtz and Tyler Morrison, Joe Schneider took matters into his own hands, stealing home off Crandon's Carsyn Mayer to make it 3-0.
That was all the offense until the fifth for the Rebels when Kurtz started things with hit and the Rebels finally cashed in with two outs on an RBI single by Cody Everson. After Bixby walked to continue the inning, Jamison singled and Everson scored when the ball was misplayed in right field.
The floodgates opened in the sixth once Mayer had to leave the mound after reaching the daily 105-pitch limit.
Smith greeted reliever Matty Schallhorn by slicing a triple to right that scored Sam Schneider, who reached on an error to start the inning. After Kurtz walked, Smith scored when a throw back to third hit him and rolled away in foul territory, allowing him to reverse course and score. Everson reached on a two-out error to short that scored Kurtz and kept the inning alive. After Bixby and Jamison drew walks to load the bases, Joe Schneider ended the game via the 10-run rule with a two-run single to right.
"They helped us out a bit there. They played a good, solid game until they had a couple of mistakes, and we capitalized on them," Huhnstock said.
Bixby and Jamison had almost identical pitching lines in what were essentially bullpen sessions for Rhinelander's two top pitchers. Both gave up a hit and a walk over three innings. Bixby struck out four batters and earned the win. Jamison fanned two.
Crandon's best chance came off Bixby in the second as Mason Mullins walked and Curtis Paschen reached on an infield hit to the hole at shortstop. Both advanced a base on a throwing error to give Crandon runners as second and third with one out. From there, Tyler Schunk flew out to right, but not deep enough to allow Mullins to tag and score from third, and Bixby struck out Tyler Sprink to end the threat.
Thanks to some stellar defensive plays, Jamison faced the minimum over his three innings of work, despite allowing a baserunner in each frame. Cole Shepherd singled in front of a diving AJ Turek in right center in the fourth inning, but was thrown out by Smith trying to leg the play into a double. Smith robbed Schunk of extra bases, with a running grab in the left center gap in the fifth and then had more than enough time to double Paschen off of first base, as he was almost to third when the ball was caught.
The Rebels then caught Mayer in a rundown to end the sixth inning. He reached on a fielder's choice after Walter Winkleman reached on an error.
Rhinelander had chance to make the score much more lop-sided that it was, leaving at least one runner in scoring position every inning. The Rebels were 6-for-19 with runners in scoring position on Thursday.
"We've just got to get better at that," Huhnstock said. "So far it hasn't bitten us. We've been able to push across enough runs to get wins. We've got very strong pitching, very strong defense."
The Rebels were able to get the make-up game with Crandon in after Mosinee was unable to play either Wednesday or Friday. The games have been tentatively postponed with no make-up date announced.
Rhinelander gets set for a big test this week as it is in the midst of facing Medford twice in a span of three days. The Rebels were No. 3 in last week's Wisconsin Legion AA poll while Medford received honorable mention. The teams played Monday night in Medford and will play in Rhinelander tomorrow night.
"All our arms will be fresh. We've just got to go there and play our A-game," Huhnstock said.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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