Rebels on the brink at regionals

MEDFORD — After two days of the Wisconsin AA Region 2 tournament, the Rhinelander Rebels’  chances of making a repeat run to the state tournament were hanging by a thread. 

Despite needing to play an extra game Friday, the Rebels did what they needed to do in all three phases, knocking off Eagle River 6-3 in the morning before defeating host Medford 8-1 in the nightcap. 

The Rebels’ offense ran dry on Saturday, however, and Merrill took advantage of just enough cracks in the team’s armor to eke out a 2-1 win. 

As of press time for this edition, the Rebels were left with the unenviable task of having to knock off Medford and then Merrill on Sunday to force a winner-take-all title game with Merrill on Monday. Rhinelander was unable to do that, however, falling to Medford 8-4 in an elimination game on Sunday.

Merrill 2, Rhinelander 1

Post 46 scored a pair of early runs, waited out a weather delay than then stopped a Rebel rally in the fifth inning to force Rhinelander to take the long road to a potential tournament title. 

Merrill’s Brady Kanitz and Isaak Clapper outdueled Rhinelander’s Jacksen Smith in a 2-1 decision that no one would have expected — considering the teams combined to score 68 runs in their three regular season meetings, all won by Rhinelander. 

This time around, the Rebels were held to only two hits. 

“Jacksen threw very well for us and their two pitchers threw very well,” Huhnstock said. “It is what it is. That is tournament baseball. You’re going to face good pitching and you’ve gotta hit good pitching then and play error-free ball. They played just a little bit cleaner game than us, put a few more balls in plays and that ultimately decides close games.”

While Smith walked only three over six innings, two of those walks ended up scoring. Connor Cortright drew a one-out walk in the first and, following an error by shortstop Seth Nofftz that allowed him to get to third, scored on a sacrifice fly by Kanitz. 

Merrill then loaded the bases with nobody out in the third on a pair of walks and a Cortight double before an unusual play doubled their lead. Kanitz hit a fly ball to center that appeared to be deep enough to score Isaak Clapper from third. Ryan Jamison ended up dropping the ball in center and Clapper did score, but the play ended up being an unconventional fielder’s choice after Sam Reimann retreated back to first base, thinking the ball was caught. 

Either way, Merrill led 2-0 by the time thunderstorms rolled in and halted play in the middle of the fourth inning. Once play resumed following a 93-minute delay, Rhinelander had life in the fifth after Adrian Patrone drew a leadoff walk, and was bunted to second by Cody Everson. Jamison singled sharply past short, moving Patrone to third, and subsequently stole second to put the tying run in scoring position with the team’s best hitter, Sam Schneider, up. 

Kanitz’s 0-1 pitch to Schneider got away from Cortright behind the plate and to the backstop, and Patrone made a break for home, only to be called out on an bang-bang play at the plate. 

“Bang-bang play and, again, close games are determined by bang-bang plays and you’ve got to make sure you win those plays,” Huhnstock said. 

Schneider walked and stole second, with Jamison scoring as Merrill’s throw to second sailed into the outfield. From there, Owen Kurtz was robbed of a potential game-tying single on a back-handed pick up the third base line by Clapper to end the inning.

Clapper shut down the Rebels over the final two innings. Rhinelander’s only glimmer of life appeared to come when Clapper dropped an 0-2 pop up in foul territory against Patrone, but the umpire deemed that Patrone verbally interfered with Clapper, and called Patrone out for the second out of the inning. Cody Everest grounded out to third to end the contest. 

“I heard Adrian yelling something, I don’t know what he yelled, and he sort of veered out of the baseline a little bit,” said Huhnstock who was coaching at first base in the vicinity of the call in question. “You can’t be doing stuff like that. He would have had a second chance to get a base knock there.”

Rhinelander 6, Eagle River 3

    Rhinelander’s Jacksen Smith makes a sliding catch during the fourth inning of a Wisconsin American Legion Class AA Region 2 tournament game against Eagle River in Medford Friday, July 21. (Matt Frey/Star News)
  

The Rebels started their run by chipping away at Eagle River in the teams’ third meeting in 11 days. 

Nofftz hit an RBI single that broke a 1-1 tie in the fourth, and the Rebels added two runs each in the fifth and seventh to take the win. 

Max Ratty went the distance, allowing three runs on four hits with five strikeouts. The only earned runs he allowed came on a two-run home run by Austin Samanske in the seventh inning. 

Smith went 2-for-2 and scored three runs in the contest. He got things going in the second with a triple and scored the game’s first run on an RBI single by Dylan Vanderbunt. After Samanske walked and scored on an error to tie it in the bottom of the second, Smith scored on Nofftz’s fourth-inning single to put the Rebels back in front. 

Back-to-back one-out RBI singles by Kurtz and Ratty pushed the advantage to 4-1 in the fifth. Schneider walked and scored on a Ratty single in the seventh. Smith added a base hit and later scored on a passed ball. 

“We’ve seen them enough times,” Huhnstock said. “It was one of them things where we knew them pretty well. We knew we could get aggressive on the bases once we got some runners and take advantage of some stuff we’ve done all season against them.”

Rhinelander 8, Medford 1

    Rhinelander’s Ryan Jamison pitches during the fourth inning of a Wisconsin American Legion Class AA Region 2 tournament game at Medford Friday, July 21. (Matt Frey/Star News)
  

The Rebels jumped on Medford starter Ty Metz in the middle innings, scoring in every frame from the third to the sixth to cruise to a strong win over the tournament hosts. 

Metz, who was Medford’s starter in a playoff win over Rhinelander during the high school season, was knocked around for six runs on six hits with four walks over 4 1/3 innings.

Jamison got Rhinelander on the board in the third as he singled, stole second and eventually came around on a throwing error after Schneider walked and stole second. Ratty hit a two-out single to right to score Schneider and make it 2-0. 

Vanderbunt drew a lead off a walk in the fourth and scored when Everson got aboard on a two-out error. The Rebels then chased Metz in the fifth as Schneider was plunked and later scored on a wild pitch. Kurtz walked and scored on Smith’s second triple of the tournament. Vanderbunt then singled home Smith to end Metz’s outing with Rhinelander up 6-0.

“He was a little bit wild last night and we were able to work some counts and put some balls in plays and sneak out a win,” Huhnstock said.

Ratty added a two-run double in the sixth inning off reliever Carson Carbaugh to account for the final two Rebel runs. Medford got its lone run as Nick Steliga scored on a two-out error in the seventh, but Jack Wojcik was thrown out at the plate to end the game, trying to score on the same play. 

Jamison pitched into the seventh for Rhinelander, allowing an unearned run on two hits with five walks and eight strikeouts. Smith got the final three outs for the Rebels.

“We had great pitching literally every game of the tournament so far,” Huhnstock said. “Yesterday we string together a little bit more hitting and was able to put a couple of Ws on the board.” 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].