June 26, 2023 at 1:58 p.m.
Wood Ducks outduel River Monsters 2-1
Wood Ducks outduel River Monsters 2-1
The Rhinelander River Monsters gave up two runs in the fourth inning and never could find a way back in a 2-1 loss to the Minocqua Wood Ducks.
Rhinelander (4-3) couldn't cash in on a 12-strikeout performance from Joe Schneider and lost despite outhitting the Wood Ducks 8-4. Minocqua had plenty of strong pitching of its own as Northland Pines High School head baseball coach Peter Aerts struck out seven over six innings and Nate Hopkins worked the final three innings scoreless to earn the save.
Neither team issued a walk and the nine-inning affair finished in a brisk 1 hour, 59 minutes.
"That's pretty incredible and it was a 2-1 game. For someone watching the game, that was a beautiful game. We were just on the wrong side of it," River Monsters manager Todd Johnson said.
Though Joe Schneider didn't walk anybody, he did plunk Wally Augustyn with a pitch to lead off the fourth. That helped lead to the Wood Ducks' only offensive production. Aerts reached on a slow roller to the left side to give Minocqua two on with nobody out. Schneider struck out Austin Samanske and James McCormack from there, but was then foiled by a former teammate. Josh Randolph, a 2019 Rhinelander graduate, hit a roller to the hole between short and third for an RBI single. Moments later, Randolph got himself in a rundown between first and second. Aerts took third on the play and then scored when an errant throw went into the outfield.
"We played it right, then it was just a bad throw to second. It was low and it skipped out into the outfield and the run was able to score. The right idea, just the execution wasn't there," Johnson said. "That inning, the leadoff hit by pitch. You give a free pass to the leadoff guy and I swear 9 out of 10 times that guy's going to score. Then they never hit a ball hard, just a couple of bleeders in the infield that were in the perfect location. That was all they needed."
Rhinelander got a run back in the bottom of the inning as Ryan Jamison reached on an error and scored when Easton Senoraske doubled off the fence in left center.
That's all the offense the Monsters could muster, however, as they stranded nine runners on base - including six in scoring position. Back-to-back singles by Quinn Lamers and Joe Schneider gave Rhinelander life with one out in the fifth, but Nate Schmidt struck out looking and Sam Schneider flew out to center to end the threat.
Martin Hoger reached on a dropped fly ball, and moved to second on a Lamers sacrifice in the seventh, but was held at third on a two-out single to right by Joe Schneider. Schmidt struck out looking to end the inning. Hoger added a two-out single in the ninth, but Lamers flew out to right to end it.
"We never had a leadoff man on base, and that hurts because it sort of takes you out of your game a bit," Johnson said. "Then it just seemed like every ball we hit hard, was right at them. We left a lot of guys on base. That's a tough night when you outhit a team 8-4."
Joe Schneider gave up just the two infield hits in the fourth as he allowed two runs, one earned over six innings and looked as sharp as he has all summer in a 98-pitch outing. Hoger struck out five and worked around a pair of hits in the ninth to toss three scoreless innings of relief.
"Joe, that's just sort of what we expect from him," Johnson said. "You could tell, early on that Joe was on tonight. That first inning, I looked at coach (Andy) Van Dyke and said, 'He's got it going tonight.' Then Martin came on and kept right where we needed them. We couldn't afford to go down another run and Martin did a great job of holding them there."
The loss continued to bunch what was already a tight Dairyland League chase. Rhinelander fell to fourth in the seven-team Large Division, but sits just one game behind first-place Wisconsin Rapids (5-2). Everest (4-2) and Whittlesey (3-2) also sat ahead of the River Monsters in the loss column entering Sunday's play, which concluded after press time for today's edition.
"There's no easy games in this league," Johnson said. "It just seems like everyone's sort of taking turns beating each other. If you're expecting an easy game in this league, you're mistaken. Every one of these teams can beat the other, which is great. It's a nice balance to the league."
Rhinelander returns to action Sunday afternoon, taking on Merrill at Stafford Field. The River Monsters beat the Rangers 8-7 in the season opener May 14 in Merrill.
"Merrill was our inaugural game. Now we get to face them again, get them at home. Hopefully we get back on the winning track next week," Johnson said.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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