June 21, 2023 at 12:52 p.m.
Team review: RHS baseball
Hodags improve with young squad
Team review: RHS baseball
The early struggles were predictable for the Hodags, especially considering that the team did not play on its home field until April 28 due to a late thaw.
Rhinelander went 8-14 overall on the season and finished tied for fifth in the GNC with a 4-8 league mark. Still the Hodags showed improvement down the stretch, going 5-4 over their final nine games - with two of those losses coming by a single run.
There was a playoff upset on the road at Antigo and, even when Rhinelander fell 9-2 in the regional semifinals at second-seeded and GNC co-champion Medford, the Hodags showed plenty of life until the end.
"We could have very easily folded the tent at 9-1 after four innings and it could have easily been 10, but they competed," Hodag coach Joe Waksmonski said afterward.
Here are five storylines from the recently completed season.
Unfamiliar turf
Rhinelander had to spend most of the month of April away from the friendly confines of Stafford Field. That's because it, like much of the Northwoods, was still covered in snow.
While the Hodag Dome aided in preseason training, Waksmonski said there was no replacement for being outside and said there was no coincidence that the team's bats and defense started to come around once it could get outside on a consistent basis.
"We're slowly improving," he said in front of the team's hope opener April 28 against Ashland. "It's been great this week, especially, to get outside and practice. You can only do so much inside the dome as far as fly balls and fly-ball communication and things like that."
Growing pains
Rhinelander played its first six games of the season, including four Great Northern Conference contests, on the artificial turf surface at the Rapids Area Sports Complex, going 2-4 in those games, thanks to a doubleheader sweep over Northland Pines.
Picked to finish third in the GNC by the Wisconsin Baseball Yearbook, the Hodags faced an uphill climb to meet those expectations after being swept by Antigo in an early-season doubleheader. Rhinelander also had the tough task of playing the prohibitive favorites in the GNC - Medford and Mosinee - in road doubleheaders.
The two games that stung the most in conference play were a pair of one-run losses to Lakeland. The T-Birds used a five-run third to get past the Hodags 5-4 in Rhinelander May 4 and then finished the series sweep with a 2-1 win in Minocqua May 20.
"That knocks us down to fifth place in the conference. You hate to finish like that in your conference season to anyone, but especially to lose 2-1 in a game where we had multiple chances to put it away," Waksmonski said afterward.
Key wins
Throughout the final month of the season, there were a number of highlight wins for the team, beginning with the home opener against Ashland, which served as a coming-out party for sophomore pitcher Dylan Vanderbunt.
Vanderbunt, who developed into the Hodags' No. 3 pitching option behind juniors Max Ratty and James Heck this spring, tossed a three-hitter in that game and needed only 75 pitches to finish off a complete-game effort. Just over a week later, the Hodags knocked off D.C. Everest 7-6 and the team closed the regular season with a come-from-behind 4-3 win over Stratford.
All three non-conference foes would go on to make notable WIAA tournament runs - with D.C. Everest and Ashland reaching the sectional semifinals in Divisions 1 and 2, respectively, and Stratford falling to Marathon in a Division 3 regional final.
Those wins helped Rhinelander prepare of its own push in the playoffs and its biggest win of the year, a 5-3 triumph over Antigo in the first round of the WIAA playoffs. The Hodags held on down the stretch in that game to score their first win in Antigo since 2011.
"It's just one of those special feelings that you don't get to experience too often," Waksmonski said. "It's especially great for high school kids to experience a feeling like that, to be a part of a great, gritty victory in enemy territory against a rival to win a playoff game. You just wish you could bottle up that feeling and open it up whenever you need it but, I tell you what, we're going to enjoy the heck out of that win tonight."
Statbook
Pitching was Rhinelander's biggest question mark entering the season. Ratty, the only player who saw significant varsity innings last spring, moved into the ace role for Rhinelander, going 4-5 with a 5.11 ERA and 48 strikeouts over 49 1/3 innings.
Heck was Rhineladner's No. 2 option and led the staff with a 3.69 ERA this spring as he went 2-5 with a save and recorded 39 strikeouts over 36 innings. Heck struggled to get much defensive help on the mound, however, as 15 of the 34 runs he allowed during the season were unearned.
Vanderbunt went 1-2 with a 4.97 ERA and 20 strikeouts over 31 innings.
"For where Max and James and Dylan were in that first pitching effort at Wisconsin Rapids to where we're at the end of the season against Antigo, against Medford and Dylan in his final appearance as well, to be able to throw with confidence," Waksmonski noted at the end of the season. "All of them stepped up with their off-speed game. They weren't asked to throw a lot of off-speed in Babe Ruth. All of them grew in that regard and, conversely at the end of the year, their curve balls, especially James', became a real weapon.
Vanney was the only other pitcher on the Hodag staff to see more than 10 innings, going 0-1 with a 6.68 ERA and 17 strikeouts over 14 2/3 innings.
Offensively, Ratty led the way with a .290 average and 14 RBIs, followed closely by senior catcher Sam Schneider (.288, 10 RBIs). Junior left fielder Owen Kurtz led the team in RBIs (17), hit both of the Hodags' home runs this spring and finished third on the team with a .286 average. Sophomore shortstop Seth Nofftz improved more than 100 points at the plate this spring, going .274 with nine RBIs.
What's next
The Hodags graduated four seniors from the squad - Schneider, second baseman Cody Everson, centerfielder AJ Turek and platoon first baseman Tyler Morrison.
"They're good, quality people and they were a good group to coach," Waksmonski said. "We never really had any issues with those four. They were just drama-free, a very easy group and they worked hard."
Of the four, Schneider's graduation likely creates the greatest void as who will take his spot behind the plate next season remains uncertain. Schneider has caught every game so far this summer for Rhinelander's American Legion Baseball squad.
Pitching-wise, the Hodags will have the unusual luxury of returning all of their varsity arms and will bring back four of their top six hitters in Ratty, Kurtz, Nofftz and Heck (.212, 13 RBIs).
Improving in the GNC won't be easy, however, as the majority of squads in the conference were underclassman-heavy. Waksmonski said during the team's banquet earlier this month, that it will be essentially a race among the conference teams to see who improves the most during the offseason.
"Improvement has got to start with our pitchers, just being able to get their arms going, throwing some more bullpens," he said. "Hitters, because we have all these pitchers coming back, we're going to have to be able to hit those above-average fastballs ... Then, defensively, just going through the reps so you have the confidence to make the routine plays. Really, that's the name of the game. The team that makes the routine plays is the team that wins. It's not the team that makes the most outstanding plays or diving plays. It's the team that makes the routine plays that wins."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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