Rebels’ season ends as Medford avenges loss

MEDFORD — After stumbling in the winner’s bracket of the Class AA Region 2 tournament on Saturday, the Rhinelander Post 7 Rebels knew entering Sunday’s play they would have to be nearly flawless the rest of the way to have a shot at recovering and earning a repeat trip to the state tournament. 

The first few innings of their elimination game on Sunday were anything but flawless, and the Rebels’ season came to an end as a result. 

Rhinelander spotted Medford an early 6-0 lead and could not recover, falling 8-4 in Day 3 of the regional tournament in Medford. After a 2-0 start in the tournament, the Rebels lost two straight to bow out of the five-team tournament in third place.

“Going in, you figured that it was a pretty well-balanced tournament where anybody could come out of it. I really thought after we got off to a 2-0 start that things were rolling our way but, unfortunately, we ran into some very good ball teams,” Rebels manager Dan Huhnstock said. 

Rhinelander didn’t have its A-game early on Sunday. Starting pitcher Dylan Vanderbunt struggled and was chased before recording an out in the second with three hits, three walks and a hit batter on his line. He didn’t get much help from his defense, either. Shortstop Seth Nofftz mishandled a potential double-play ball in the first and had another error in the second as Medford broke out to a quick six-run lead. Three of the six runs against Vanderbunt were unearned. 

“We had a few walks, hit batsmen and a few miscues on defense. We just couldn’t dig ourselves out of it,” Huhnstock said. 

Rhinelander threatened in the early innings, but only got a single run in the second as Nofftz doubled and scored on a Barak Rappley RBI single. The score could have easily been 6-5, however, if not for two stellar inning-ending plays by Medford.

The Rebels had runners on first and second with two out and a full count to Owen Kurtz in the first. Kurtz hit a screaming liner to right that was intercepted on a leaping grab by first baseman Max Dietzman. 

The Rebels had two aboard again in the second as Ryan Jamison ripped a ball to the left-center gap, only to watch center fielder Evan Wilkins make a diving catch. 

“Medford made some fantastic defensive plays to shut us down out of potential run-scoring opportunities,” Huhnstock said. “Them were really well-hit balls. The first baseman got every inch of vertical that he had and was able to bring it down. Then their centerfielder made a really nice grab also in the gap. That would have been a couple of runs there, probably.”

Sam Schneider was called into long relief duty and helped put out the fire from the second inning on. He gave up two runs on three hits with six strikeouts over the final six innings. Parker Lissner singled home Tanner Hraby on in the third and Nick Steliga singled and scored when Charlie Gierl reached on an error in the fourth. 

“Sam is such a versatile player and such a gamer. He knew we needed to stem their tide to give us a chance to get back in it,” Huhnstock said. 

Schneider walked and scored on a Max Ratty sacrifice fly in the third and the Rebels cut the lead to 8-4 in the fifth on a Kurtz sacrifice fly and an RBI single by Ratty. 

It was a disappointing end for the Rebels (16-7), who have now bowed out of the regional tournament to Medford in two of the last three seasons. 

Ultimately, Saturday’s 2-1 loss to Merrill put Rhinelander in a situation from which it could not recover.

“That was huge. If we’re able win the game against Merrill and sit there having to get beat twice, I like our chances,” Huhnstock said. “It is what it is, you know. It’s tough. We had a lot of luck against Merrill earlier in all hard-fought games. Eventually the law of averages is going to catch up to you if you don’t play your 100% A-game every time.”

Medford avenged an 8-1 loss to Rhinelander earlier in the tournament and then defeated Merrill 6-5 in 11 innings Sunday to force a winner-take-all title game on Monday.

The game also marked the end of the legion careers for Rhinelander’s three age-eligible class of 2022 graduates in the U19 league — Jamison, Jacksen Smith and Kolby Ridderbusch. 

“I’m very, very proud of them and that we’ve got a great nucleus coming back next year, but we sure are going to miss our leaders with Ryan, Jacksen and Kolby.”

Jeremy Mayo 

may be reached at 

jeremy@rivernews

online.com.