May 15, 2023 at 7:52 a.m.
Softball: Hodags held hitless, still beat Lakeland
RHS to host Shawano to begin softball playoffs
Softball: Hodags held hitless, still beat Lakeland
Laney Haenel scored in the third inning and the Hodags held on behind a three-hit shutout from senior hurler Addi DeMeyer to beat Lakeland 1-0 at Lenz Field in Minocqua.
The win guaranteed Rhinelander at least a tie for fourth place in the final conference standings. The Hodags ended the regular season at 9-13 following a 25-10 loss against Wausau East at home Friday.
Rhinelander will begin the WIAA tournament at home against Shawano this coming Thursday.
"A really good win," coach D.J. DeMeyer said of Thursday's victory. "We've still got some things to work on. It we can win two out of three every week like we've been doing, that sets us up for the tournament really well."
Regardless of what happens in the tournament, Thursday might just be the game of the year for the Hodags, especially considering how they won it. Lakeland's Saylor Timmerman struck out 15 as she no-hit Rhinelander for the second time in her career. She walked only one batter, but that mistake proved very costly.
Haenel drew the free pass to lead off the third inning, stole second and then stole third as the Hodags feigned bunting. An overthrow from catcher Kieran Petrie on the steal attempt of third allowed Haenel to sprint in and score.
Coach DeMeyer said the Hodags went in with a game plan to play small ball and put pressure on Lakeland's defense.
While Timmerman kept Rhinelander's baserunners down to a minimum, the Hodags capitalized on their one opportunity.
"We bunted I don't know how many times and they fielded it, but the one time they didn't," he said. "We fake bunted, stole her to third, they threw it away and she got in."
Rhinelander had two base runners in the game. Lucy Lindner reached on an error on a bunt in the first inning but was thrown out trying to stretch a two-base error to a three-base mistake.
Lakeland, by contrast, left 11 runners stranded in the contest and left the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh inning. DeMeyer struck out 12 batters in the contest, and got Moriah Lewis looking in the last of the seventh to end it.
"Addi pitched really well," coach DeMeyer said. "She had seven walks, but two or three of them were (intentional) where I just put the runner on. We had a couple of runners on, Addi got tough, struck out some batters. We had a couple of nice plays on the defense."
Petrie walked on four straight pitches to lead off the seventh for Lakeland and was bunted over to second by Karlin Williams. Ali Timmerman walked before Saylor Timmerman hit a screaming line drive back at Addi DeMeyer that hit her in the elbow. DeMeyer was able to recover and throw out Saylor Timmerman while the other runners advanced.
With an open bag, the Hodags intentionally walked Hannah Louis to get to Moriah Louis with two out. With the tying run at third and the winning run at second, DeMeyer fell behind in the count 3-1. She got strike two looking. Moriah Louis fouled off the first 3-2 pitch before DeMeyer froze her with the second.
"The seventh inning was a doozy," D.J. DeMeyer said. "She was able to strike out on a full count. The stress was there. We knew it was going to be this kind of game. Whoever didn't make the errors was going to win."
Lakeland had two on with two out in the first, third and fifth innings, but the Hodags were able to wiggle out of all three jams. Moriah Louis struck out to end the first, Abigale Johnson made a running catch to deny Hannah Louis of an RBI in the third and Addi DeMeyer got Hannah Louis to pop out to second to end the fifth. The Hodags also worked around a two-out double by Greta Johnson in the sixth as DeMeyer struck out Sarah Barton.
Wausau East 25, Rhinelander 10
Friday's game did not go as well for the Hodags. Wausau East scored multiple runs in every inning - including 10 in the fifth inning - to defeat the Hodags 25-10.
DeMeyer did not pitch after taking the line drive off of Saylor Timmerman's bat late in Thursday's game. Haenel and Libbey Buchmann combined to allow 16 hits, but only gave up 10 earned runs because of a defense that committed 10 errors.
"Laney pitched really good. I thought she did everything we asked her to do. She threw strikes. I don't think she walked many batters," coach DeMeyer said. "They hit her and we just didn't make the plays. It's not just any one person. When it says the stat line of 10 errors, we had more than 10 errors. I think that's generous when you add in the mental errors and stuff like that ... Everybody on our team had errors and after the game I told the we've got to wipe this off. We've got playoffs starting next Thursday. We come back Monday working hard and try to get back on track."
Both teams scored twice in the first inning, but East took the lead for good with a five-run second. The Hodags scored six times in the third to get within 11-9 but East pulled away over the final two innings.
Treder went 3-for-4 in the game with two RBIs. Abigale Johnson was 2 for 4. DeMeyer and Lindner each collected two RBIs at the plate.
"We hit the ball. We hit some balls really hard right at them too. We were hitting their pitcher. They were hitting ours. They made less errors than we did, and that's just how the game went," coach DeMeyer said.
Shawano ahead
It's possible, had the Rhinelander-Lakeland game been played one day earlier, that the seeding for the WIAA tournament would have changed. Lakeland, which beat Rhinelander 6-2 last month in the Hodag Dome, earned the No. 7 seed ahead of the Hodags. Rhinelander drew the No. 8 seed and a home game against Shawano on Thursday.
Despite a loss to Mosinee less than two hours before last Wednesday's seeding meeting, Medford got the No. 1 seed and will host the winner of the Rhinelander-Shawano game next Tuesday. Mosinee vaulted up to the No. 2 seed ahead of New London and Antigo.
"I like our seed. I had a chance to go to the 7-seed, but, I know this sounds crazy, but we play better against Medford than we do Mosinee," coach DeMeyer said. "I would rather take our chances with Medford right away."
The Hodags lost to the Raiders 10-0 and 13-3 in two games this season. Mosinee swept the Hodags 18-5 and 11-4 in two regular season meetings. Shawano was 6-12 overall and 4-7 in the Bay Conference entering Saturday's play.
"I don't know anything about Shawano and I'm probably not going to look up anything. I'm just going to say, 'Girls, this is the game, let's go play the game like we can," coach DeMeyer said. "We have to get by Shawano first and they're a good team, too. Their record's close to ours. We have to get by them, one game at a time now and see what we can do. Maybe we can pull a rabbit out of our hat."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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