April 12, 2023 at 10:51 a.m.
Softball: Medford takes advantage of chances, beats Hodags 5-0
Zayleah Leonhardt had a two-run homer in the first and Allie Paulson added an RBI single in the seventh. Those were Medford's only two hits, but the Raiders took advantage of some other opportunities and defeated the Hodags 5-0 in the Hodag Dome.
Rhinelander had three hits in the contest off two-time GNC player of the year Martha Miller, but could not string anything together as Miller walked one and struck out 12 over seven innings. The Hodags left five runners on base - including four in scoring position.
"Overall, I thought we played pretty well. The final score was 5-0. In reality that's probably a one or two-run game," Rhinelander coach D.J DeMeyer said.
Rhinelander ace Addi DeMeyer got off to a slow start for a second straight game. She hit Miller with a 1-2 pitch to lead off the contest and then walked Paulson. Both mistakes eventually cost Rhinelander as Miller scored on an Eryka Seidl sacrifice fly to right and Leonhardt drilled the very next pitch deep to left-center to make it 3-0.
Those were the only earned runs DeMeyer allowed in a 10-strikeout performance. It followed a rough first inning last Saturday against Edgar in which DeMeyer allowed the first five batters to reach before settling inning and allowing only two runs in the frame.
"Addi gave up that home run in the first inning, we get away from that (we're OK)," coach DeMeyer said. "She hit the leadoff batter on a 1-2 count and had a walk in there. We'll give them that one run but, in reality it should have been that.
"She might have a little bit of a dead arm right now. She's throwing a lot of innings ... We'll give her an extra day of rest and maybe we can go get a win at Mosinee."
Medford tacked on a pair of insurance runs in the seventh as Chelsea Gebauer walked and Miller reached on a mishandled bunt by DeMeyer with Gebauer at third. Both came in with two out as Paulson's single dropped in front of, and then spun past, right fielder Willow Mutter.
Rhinelander, meanwhile, was unable to cash in on its opportunities. Kelsi Beran singled and Mutter reached on a mishandled bunt attempt in the third, but Beran was later called out for interfering with Paulson at short on a ground ball by Lily Treder, ending the threat.
Lucy Lindner hit a two-out double to left in the fourth, but Miller struck out freshman Libbey Buchan to end that inning. Abigale Johnson hit a lead-off single in the sixth and advanced to third on a pair of wild pitches that bounced off home plate, but Miller struck out Treder, got Roeser to pop out and then fanned DeMeyer to end the inning.
Laney Haenel drew a pinch-hit walk with one out in the seventh, but a pop out by Nora Rutkowski and a Beran strikeout ended the game.
"Let's give Martha credit. She's the best pitcher in the conference - and probably the best player again, too," coach DeMeyer said. "We had a couple good at-bats. We had some girls that were nervous up there and we'll work on that. We're 10 games in now. They should have their confidence of not worrying about who's throwing. We haven't had a lot of cage hitting lately because we've been busy playing games. We can do that on Wednesday and maybe get back into the swing of hitting the ball."
On Monday, Rhinelander and Mosinee announced they had swapped home dates for their conference games with Rhinelander heading to Mosinee Thursday in a game that concluded after press time for today's edition. Mosinee will make the return trip to Rhinelander May 9. The move was made in case the Hodag Dome was needed for Thursday's GNC girls' soccer game between Rhinelander and Medford.
The Hodags (4-6, 1-1 Great Northern) travel to Lakeland this coming Tuesday. Rhinelander will face the Raiders again next Thursday in Medford.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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