April 11, 2023 at 6:33 a.m.
Hodag baseball swept by Rapids in season opener
James Heck pitched 4 1/3 innings of no-hit ball but a four-run sixth inning allowed Wisconsin Rapids to get by Rhinelander 4-1 in Friday's first game in Wisconsin Rapids. The Hodags did not have the same pitching effectiveness in Game 2, losing in five innings, 14-2.
"We definitely saw some bright spots today, and then we saw some items we could work on in the upcoming weeks here to get ready for the conference season," Hodag coach Joe Waksmonski said.
Heck was certainly a bright spot for a team that did not have its lone returning varsity pitcher, Max Ratty, available for a doubleheader that was hastily rescheduled from March 31 following last weekend's snowstorm.
Heck struck out nine batters and worked around six walks in his first varsity start, keeping the Raiders off the board into the fifth inning.
"James threw his way out of a lot of jams," Waksmonski said. "A couple of those jams were self-induced with walks and a couple of hit batters, but he definitely pitched with poise and used his defense. He also had an effective curveball today as well."
Rhinelander took the lead in the top of the sixth as Sam Schneider singled and later scored on a two-out passed ball. The lead did not last long, however, as Rapids tagged reliever Oscar Hanson in the bottom of the inning. Kaleb Ellis led off with a single and scored two batters later on a Marcos Simonsen base knock. Rapids eventually got two on with two out before Brett Simonsen hit a go-ahead two-run triple past a diving Owen Kurtz in left. He would score himself moments later on a wild pitch.
"Owen was out there and made a diving attempt at it in that situation," Waksmonski said. "It was two outs and the go-ahead run was at third. Unfortunately, we didn't come up with the play. That scored a couple more and they tacked on the fourth run after that."
Game 2 did not go as smoothly for the Hodags, who trotted out four different pitchers in the contest. Rapids scored four times in the first inning, three more in the second, three in the third and four in the fourth. The Hodags walked 12 batters in the contest.
"We had a lot of walks and then I think more or less Rapids finally started hitting the ball," Waksmonski said. "It was a combination of too many free bases and then Rapids capitalizing on those base runners with some timely hits."
Sophomore Dylan Vanderbunt started and allowed seven runs on three hits with six walks over the two innings. Kaden Vanney gave up three runs, one earned, on two hits with two walks in the third. Schneider walked three and gave up three hits in a four-run fourth. Hanson returned to the mound and worked a scoreless fifth for the Hodags with a pair of strikeouts.
Schneider had Rhinelander's lone offense in Game 2 - a two-out double that plated AJ Turek and Cody Everson. It was Rhinelander's lone hit in the second game. The Hodags had just two hits in Game 1 - singles by Schneider and Seth Nofftz.
"Sam had a big hit in Game 2 where he cleared the bases with a double," Waksmonski said. "Really, he seems to be the only hitter we have right now that has a sense of timing at the plate. A lot of our guys are very timid, it seems like. We're going down looking a lot with strike three. We've really got to talk about, work on our approach here going forward."
What will happen this week, and with the Great Northern Conference schedule as a whole, is murky at this point. The Hodags were scheduled to host Antigo Monday and make a return trip to Antigo on Thursday. With neither field ready to be played on by Thursday, Waksmonski said the teams are looking at alternatives to play a neutral-site doubleheader.
Whether both of those games, whenever they take place, will count toward the GNC standings is also in question. The conference's athletic directors met last Wednesday and OKed a plan that would reduce the season to a six-game single-round robin in which only the first meeting would count due to concerns that a late thaw would make it challenging for teams to play 12 games in a condensed timeframe.
Waksmonski said the conference coaches are pushing back on that idea, however, and still want to play a 12-game conference slate.
"There's a big push," he said. "All the conference coaches agreed to try to keep it at 12. We're still at April 7 and to say we should go to a single round-robin, I think is just a little preemptive - too preemptive for us."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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