River Monsters’ Dairyland title hopes dashed in extras at Whittlesey

WHITTLESEY — For the second time this year, the Rhinelander River Monsters fell in walk-off fashion on a bang-bang call at home plate. Sunday’s setback officially knocked the River Monsters out of Dairyland League Large title contention in their inaugural season. 

Brent Mueller was deemed to have beaten Joe Schneider’s throw home on a bases-loaded grounder off the bat of Nate Retterath in the 10th inning as Rhinelander fell in a hotly-contested game at Whittlesey, 6-5.

The loss mathematically clinched the Dairyland League Large title for Wisconsin Rapids (9-2) while Rhinelander fell into a three-way tie for second with Whittlesey and Everest (6-4). The River Monsters split their games against both the Reds and the Merchants this season. 

Neither team led by more than two runs in the game, and the lead changed hands four times over the final four innings of play. Rhinelander did all of this despite having only nine players on the lineup card on Sunday — including the debut of Andy Van Dyke, who has served as the team’s first-base coach all season.

“We came in here a little short-handed but VD (Van Dyke) played exceptional and the guys, what a gritty performance. It was a great baseball game,” River Monsters’ manager Todd Johnson said. “I’m probably more proud of the way we played this game than any game so far this year.”

Trailing 4-3 heading to the top of the ninth, Tyler Blomdahl tied the game with his second home run in as many contests, hitting a leadoff shot off Nick Retterath, to chase him from the hill after eight-plus innings of work. 

“He’s sort of hitting his groove a little bit now,” Johnson said. “When he hits them, they’re no-doubters, that’s for sure.”

Rhinelander got out of a bases-loaded jam with two out in the bottom of the ninth to force extras and took the lead in the top of the 10th. Using Major League Baseball rules of a ghost runner on second to begin extra innings, Quinn Lamers bunted down the first base line for a hit to give Rhinelander two on and one out for Joe Schneider. Schneider drove in Kurt Zuiker on a groundout to put the Monsters up 5-4. Rhinelander did no further damage in the inning, however, following pop-ups by Jesse Robinson and Nick Spencer. 

“The way it started it was perfect because it was right in the perfect spot in the order, to have Quinn in that situation. When he got on, runners on the corners and nobody out, you’re sort of hoping for more than one at that point,” Johnson said. 

It turned out Rhinelander needed more than one as Mueller was hit with a one-out pitch. Following a passed ball that put runners at second and third, Rhinelander intentionally walked Brandon Loertscher to put the double play back in order. Spike Alexander singled past short to tie it before Nate Retterath’s walk-off. 

A warm July day featured tensions to match. There was some shouting between the teams after Rhinelander took a 2-0 lead on a Jesse Robinson single in the third. The Reds tried to throw to third to get Joe Schneider advancing on the play. The throw brought shortstop Jeff Kraschnewski into the base path well in front of third base. He and Schneider collided, the ball rolled into foul territory and Schneider scored. 

“These guys are tough and there’s a little tension, I guess, between the two teams, but we played well,” Johnson said regarding the perceived animosity between the teams. 

Whittlesey tied the game in the bottom of the third as Kraschnewski drew a bases-loaded walk against Schneider with two out in the inning and Mueller followed with an RBI single to score Nick Meyer. Tom Mildbrand was cut down at the plate from right field trying to score on the play.

That was all the scoring for either team until the seventh when the Monsters had four hits, but only a run to show for their efforts. Jacob Dreifuerst hit a one-out double down the left field line before Van Dyke hit a ground ball to short that ended up hitting Dreifuerst. Despite Dreifuerst being out for being hit by a batted ball, Van Dyke was credited for a single on the play — which he quipped was his first hit in the Dairyland League since he last played 17 years ago.

Kurt Zuiker followed with a double and Lamers had an RBI single to left that scored Van Dyke, but Zuiker was thrown out at the plate to end the inning, trying to score from second on the play. 

Joe Schneider went eight innings in a no-decision for Rhinelander, allowing four runs on 10 hits with four strikeouts. Lamers took the loss, allowing two runs on three hits with two walks and a strikeout over 1 1/3 innings. 

Rhinelander was scheduled to play at Marshfield on Wednesday to make up a game that was rained out July 12. The River Monsters will be home Saturday afternoon to close out the Dairyland League regular season against Wisconsin Rapids at Stafford Field.

“Two really tough games. We’re going to have to sort of throw a little bit of a bullpen game on Wednesday night here,” Johnson said. 

Moving into August, Rhinelander has picked up a non-league game with Antigo that will be played at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 4 at Stafford Field. 

The Wisconsin Baseball Association regional tournament is set to take place Aug. 11-13. Rhinelander is expected to earn a postseason bid by finishing in the top half of the Dairyland League, though the team’s regional site and opponents have not yet been announced. 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at jeremy@

rivernewsonline.com.