May 1, 2023 at 8:17 a.m.
Home at last
Hodags ride Vanderbunt's three-hitter, big inning to 4-1 win over Ashland
Home at last
Sophomore Dylan Vanderbunt scattered three hits and the Hodags used a four-run third inning to get past Ashland 4-1 in non-conference play. The victory snapped a three-game losing streak for Rhinelander (3-7, 2-4 Great Northern) and provided a bit of a pick-me-up following a long opening month of the season.
"They're a very well-coached team. They're solid at the plate and it's nice to get a win like that against a program like that, especially looking ahead to next week with Lakeland and Mosinee looming," Hodag skipper Joe Waksmonski said.
The game served as a coming out party for Vanderbunt, who did not walk a batter, struck out five and needed only 75 pitches to finish a complete-game effort and score his first career varsity win.
"Dylan Vanderbunt took a huge step up today in his development. That's a huge outing for a sophomore pitcher like that," Waksmonski said. "You could just see throughout the game that confidence was just building. In a couple of his other outings, especially early on, you didn't see that right away. With more and more appearances and more and more experience at the varsity level, you can kind of see him settling in."
Vanderbunt's lone spot of trouble came in the third as he hit both Jacob Neff and Xander Parduhn with pitches. Marcus Kruzan followed with a single up the middle to give the Oredockers a 1-0 lead.
Rhinelander got the lead back in the bottom of the inning thanks to some timely hitting, a little small ball and some alert base running.
Junior Adrian Patrone collected his first hit of the season, pounding a 1-2 curveball to left for a double to lead off the third. AJ Turek followed with a bunt single down the third base line to put runners at the corners.
After Cody Everson popped out to first, Max Ratty did the same, but the Hodags took advantage of a defensive oversight to score their first run. With nobody covering home plate, Patrone made a break for the dish after first baseman Ty O'Bey caught the ball in foul territory. It ended up being a foot race to the plate between the two with Patrone winning by two strides to put the Hodags on the board.
"That actually happened a little earlier with Cody's at-bat. There was a pop up to the left side and we noticed that the third baseman did not cover home," Waksmonski said. "We put that in the bank and, sure enough, the situation came up again with Max. When they caught the ball the third baseman was still standing there and Adrian just took off. Head's up play and hat's off to him for reading the situation and seeing what was in front of him."
After Sam Schneider walked and stole second, Owen Kurtz beat out a slow roller to short to score Turek. Schneider also came around as the throw to first went wide. After a James Heck single, Seth Nofftz singled up the middle to score Kurtz and make it 4-1.
That's all the insurance Vanderbunt needed. Neff led off with a single in the fifth, but was erased on a double play ball by Wyatt Lund. Parduhn singled to lead off the sixth, but Vanderbunt got a couple of routine fly outs and a strikeout to end the inning before sitting down the Oredockers in order in the seventh.
"He kept them off balance - a lot of pop ups and a lot of ground balls," Waksmonski said. "They just could not get their timing down. I thought maybe the third time through they were starting to, but we talked about adjustments before the game and Dylan was able to make those adjustment."
The Hodags had six hits in the game, five of which came in the third. Everson singled in the fourth as Rhinelander loaded the bases with two out, but Kurtz fouled out to end the inning.
Waksmonski said finally being able to get outside at home was beneficial for his team this past week.
"We're slowly improving," he said. "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.
"We had good communication on our fly balls and pop ups, that was a point of emphasis this week at practice and I thought that went really well."
The Hodags were scheduled to travel to Lakeland on Monday, but that game was postponed due to weather. Rhinelander is slated to host Lakeland in the second game of the series on Thursday at Stafford Field before traveling to Mosinee for a doubleheader this coming Saturday.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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