River Monsters edge Holmen, finish second at regionals

ELLSWORTH — The inaugural season for the Rhinelander River Monsters did not end in a trip to the WBA state tournament, but how close the team came leaves plenty of optimism for the future. 

Joe Schneider scored following a pair of errors in the top of the 11th as Rhinelander defeated third-seeded Holmen 2-1 Sunday in the regional round of the WBA tournament.

Unfortunately for the Monsters, a 6-5 loss to Ellsworth the night before, came back to haunt them. Since all three teams finished 1-1 in pool play, run differential broke the tie to determine the state qualifier. Holmen finished with a plus-6 differential thanks to a 7-0 win over Ellsworth Friday night and advanced. Rhinelander (0) finished second and Ellsworth (minus-6) finished third. 

“That was sort of an emotional win,” Rhinelander manager Todd Johnson said after Sunday’s game. “It was good to get that win, to pick ourselves up after the very tough loss yesterday and to come back and beat a 3-seed — and Holmen we’ve been around them for years, quality program — to come back and play the game we did today, that meant a lot.”

The River Monsters got seven innings of one-run ball from Joe Schneider and Quinn Lamers wiggled out of a number of situations over the last four innings to pick up the win. 

Ultimately, however, Rhinelander needed runs in bunches in order leapfrog Holmen in the run-differential category. That never happened as Holmen kept the Monsters out of the hit column from the fourth inning on. 

“That was sort of our thing all summer,” Johnson said. “We’d score in spurts and then we’d hit a lull. Or we’d jump out to a lead, similar to yesterday. It’s 4-0 in the seventh and lost that game, which was a tough loss.”

    Rhinelander’s Kurt Zuiker singles during the third inning of WBA playoff game against Holmen in Ellsworth Sunday, Aug. 14. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

Holmen committed three errors in the game, and all three contributed to the two Rhinelander runs. Kurt Zuiker worked a 10-pitch at-bat before eventually singling to right to lead off the third. Lamers bunted after that and reached when a low throw to first was dropped. Joe Schneider then advanced both runners with a groundout to second before Sam Schneider hit a sacrifice fly to center to put Rhinelander in front. 

Rhinelander struck out 14 times in the game and Holmen pitching retired 20 straight batters at one point between the fourth and the 11th. The Monsters lone walk came in the 11th as Joe Schneider took a 3-2 pitch high to reach base. Sam Schneider worked the count full before grounding to short. The throw to first was low and up the right field line. Joe Schneider advanced to third on the misfire and then home when Holmen missed a throw to second in an attempt to throw out Sam Schneider. 

“You put the ball in play and get some guys on base and anything can happen,” Johnson said.

    Rhinelander’s Joe Zuiker attempts to make a diving catch on a fly ball during the 11th inning of WBA playoff game against Holmen in Ellsworth Sunday, Aug. 14. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

Rhinelander followed with a stellar defensive play in the bottom the 11th. Cam Weber led off with a single to right in front of a diving attempt by Joe Zuiker, but Zuiker knocked the ball down, got up and threw to second in time to throw out Weber trying to stretch the play into a double.

“Joe Zuiker played amazing in right,” Johnson said. “That last inning where he stopped that ball from going by him, which could have been big trouble, he made a hell of a play just to knock that down, and then to have the presence of mind to get up and gun the guy at second, that was a tremendous play.”

Nicky Gavrillos singled and stole second before Mason Palmer hit a fly for out No. 2. Gavrillos then induced an overthrow to second by Sam Schneider behind the plate, but centerfielder Kurt Zuiker backed up the play and threw out Gavrillos at third to end the game. 

At that point, Rhinelander’s only shot at the state tournament was to let Holmen score a run and hope for a big inning in the 12th to make up the run differential. Ultimately, however, Johnson said the team was satisfied with just finishing off the victory.

“It would have been nice to pop an inning and beat them by four or something like that but, ultimately, you’re going to take a win over a loss any day of the week,” he said. “To beat them and finish the season like that was a great way to go.”

Joe Schneider scattered three hits, struck out eight and walked two over seven innings of work. Lamers gave up four hits, struck out one and walked two to get the win. Holmen had two runners on with less than two out in the eighth, ninth and 10th innings, but was unable to break the tie.

The River Monsters’ inaugural season ended with a 10-6 record. While the team left Ellsworth wondering what might have been had they been able to hold on to a 4-0 seventh-inning lead Saturday against the Hubbers, Johnson called Rhinelander’s first foray back into the adult baseball ranks after a more than two-decade hiatus a success. 

“I think we proved that all year,” he said. “We were able to beat every team in the Dairyland League and the point we were just talking about now is we’ve got to get to the point where we’re fully staffed every week. 

“We learned a lot. There will be changes next year. We’re going to kick things off with December so we’ll get an earlier start, but we certainly learned a lot this year and will put that into practice next year.”

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].