Rebels edge Marathon, Eagle River

The Rhinelander Post 7 Rebels continue to win games despite a growing injury list. 

Rhinelander picked up two more hard-fought wins last week, fending off Marathon 5-1 on the road Thursday before taking their home finale 3-2 over Eagle River/Northwoods Friday night at Stafford Field.

The Rebels did it despite a thinning bench. Max Ratty continues to be sidelined with knee trouble. Ryan Jamison left in the third inning of Thursday’s game against Marathon with an upper body injury and Cody Everson left in the fifth inning after colliding with a Marathon player during a hustle play in the field. 

Though Rhinelander did get James Heck (knee) back in the lineup for the first time in more than two weeks on Friday, manager Dan Huhnstock said he knows the upcoming week will be about getting as many players as healthy as possible entering the Class AA regional tournament, which begins this coming Friday in Medford. 

“Our biggest thing is getting guys healthy,” Huhnstock said. “We’ll probably try to slide in a couple practices, light practices because we do have so many guys on the mend. We’ll get some hitting in, definitely hitting in the cages and stuff. We’ll just be ready to play next Friday.”

    Rhinelander’s Barak Rappley slides underneath the tag attempt of Marathon’s Tyler Underwood to steal a base during the sixth inning of an American Legion baseball game at Marathon Thursday, July 13. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

Rhinelander 5, Marathon 1

After the departures of Jamison and Everson, the Rebels had only nine players remaining to finish Thursday’s game, but won thanks to solid pitching, strong defense and some timely hitting. 

Oscar Hanson and Sam Schneider combined to throw a one-hitter and Owen Kurtz collected three RBIs in a 5-1 victory. 

The Rebels led from wire-to-wire, scoring a run in the first. Hanson took a no-hitter into the fourth before surrendering a two-out single to Grant Warren. He worked around seven walks and struck out three over five-plus innings of work. The lone run Hanson allowed came in the fifth as Drew Woelfel walked and scored on a Cooper Hoeksema sacrifice fly.

“Oscar Hanson threw a great game, 92 pitches, five innings of one-run ball. He threw a heck of a game and gave us an opportunity,” Huhnstock said. “We still left too many runners in scoring position throughout the night, where we could have gave ourselves some more breathing room, but I’m very satisfied with this win against a pretty good Marathon squad.”

Schneider struck out four over the final two innings to earn the save and worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the sixth. He inherited a pair of Hanson walks when he came on in relief and then plunked Cale Quaintance with one away to load the bases. From there, Schneider got Blake Underwood looking on a 3-2 pitch and fanned Woelfel to get out of the jam.

Schneider worked a perfect seventh to get his second save in as many chances. 

The Rebels got on the board in the first as Kolby Ridderbusch’s two-out single plated Ryan Jamison. Kurtz added two-run single in the third. Barak Rappley singled and scored on the sixth after Marathon missed on a throw to first on a Kaden Vanney grounder. Though Vanney was called out on appeal for missing first base, the overthrow allowed Rappley to score from second. 

Kurtz added an RBI double in the seventh to cap off a 2-for-4 night at the plate. Oddly, however, Kurtz failed to finish an at-bat on base. He was cut down trying to extend that double into a triple and was also thrown out in the third attempting to leg a single into a double. 

“He hit the ball hard. He had a little bad luck running the bases, but he hit the ball hard,” Huhnstock said.

    Rhinelander’s Dylan Vanderbunt pitches during the first inning of an American Legion baseball game against Eagle River at Stafford Field Friday, July 14. Vanderbunt gave up two runs on six hits in a complete-game effort as the Rebels defeated the Eagles, 3-2. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

Rhinelander 3, Eagle River 2

Schneider continued to put on a hitting clinic in Friday’s game against Eagle River, as he did all last week. Coming off a four-hit game at Marathon, Schneider had two hits and an RBI in Friday’s contest. 

In a five-game stretch dating back to a July 8 doubleheader at Merrill, Schneider has collected hits in 14 of his last 19 at-bats and driven in eight runs. He had recorded six consecutive hits before flying out to right in the fourth inning of Friday’s game.

“He did prove he was human today. He actually did make an out,” Huhnstock quipped.

Schneider displayed excellent bat control to plate Rhinelander’s first run on Friday. Jacksen Smith walked and stole second to lead off the third. With Eagle River second baseman Landyn Hoeft playing close to the bag to limit Smith’s lead, Schneider took advantage of the defensive hole, slapping a single through the right side of the infield on an 0-2 pitch to score Smith. 

“Jacksen’s a good base runner and that did definitely open up the hole there. Sam is just an absolutely awesome player to be able to find a hole like that,” Huhnstock said.

Schneider scored later in the inning, breaking for the plate after Heck got picked off first base and was caught in a rundown. 

Rhinelander tacked on one more run in the fourth as Kaden Vanney doubled to left and scored on a two-out single by Seth Nofftz. 

That was enough run support for Vanderbunt, who was perfect the first time through the Eagles’ lineup. Hoeft broke up the perfect game and no-hitter with a leadoff double in the fourth and scored on a one-out single by Austin Samanske. Jonathan Miller led off the seventh with a double and scored on a Tyler Busha sacrifice fly, but Vanderbunt was able to work around his own two-out error to finish off an 84-pitch complete game victory. The junior-to-be did not issue a walk in the contest and recorded a pair of strikeouts. 

“Dylan throws the ball very well. He kept them effectively off-balance and keeps it around the plate. I’m not sure if he had any walks and an around 80-pitch outing is excellent, especially at this time in his career,” Huhnstock said. 

Rhinelander (14-4) was slated to face Clintonville on Sunday in a game that concluded after press time for today’s edition. That event was whittled down to a single game after New London backed out of what was originally scheduled to be a triangular. 

The Rebels will face Eagle River again to kick off the regional tournament Friday in Medford. Though Rhinelander swept last week’s regular season series, final scores of 5-2 and 3-2 showed, that the Eagles will be far from a walkover as Rhinelander attempts to get to the second round against Medford Friday night. 

“They are a good team. They’ve got a bunch of lefties, which we normally don’t see very much of and they can throw the ball,” Huhnstock said.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].