May 22, 2023 at 7:16 a.m.
Hodag baseball splits final two in GNC
2-1 loss at Lakeland drops RHS to fifth
Hodag baseball splits final two in GNC
Both the Hodags and the T-Birds came into the game 4-7 in the GNC. Rhinelander got there thanks to a 13-1 drubbing of Tomahawk on Thursday, but the bats fell silent against Lakeland's Will Fortier on Saturday and the Hodags had to settle for a tie for fifth in the conference with Northland Pines.
"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," Hodag coach Joe Waksmonski said.
Both of Rhinelander's hits off Fortier came in the fifth inning on Saturday, including an RBI single by Max Ratty that scored James Heck and gave the Hodags bases loaded and one out for leading hitter Sam Schneider. After fouling off a couple of pitches, Schneider hit a sharp grounder to third that Ben Peterson was able to make a play on. Peterson stepped on third and threw out Barak Rappley at the plate for an inning-ending double play.
"I haven't seen a double play turned that way in a long time," Waksmonski said. "We just seem to find different ways to get ourselves out of some big innings, but it was a great play on their part."
Lakeland jumped on Rhinelander right away, scoring both of its runs in the first inning. Logan Gray Ives was hit by a pitch to start the inning followed by singles through the infield by Ashton Bremer and Danny Gahler to load the bases with nobody out. Fortier drove in Gray Ives on a fielder's choice to short and Nate Ariola drove in Bremer as he reached on an error to short.
That was the only damage Max Ratty allowed for Rhinelander as he took a tough-luck loss, scattering three hits over six innings with six strikeouts.
"When you string stuff like that together, whether it's seeing-eye ground balls, you throw an error in there and I think a hit batsman as well, it just all seems to snowball," Waksmonski said. "Unfortunately, that held up because, the rest of the way Max pitched great. Innings 2-6 he was great. He kept them off balance, was getting ahead in the count for the most part. Even when he did fall behind, he climbed right back in right away. Defensively, for the most part, we were making some routine plays behind him as well."
Rhinelander 13, Tomahawk 1
The Hodag offense had no such trouble at home on Thursday, using a pair of six-run innings in the second and the third to get past the Hatchets 13-1 at Stafford Field.
Rhinelander had only six hits in the game, but drew 10 walks off of two different Tomahawk pitchers.
"We picked ourselves up, had a really good second inning," Waksmonski said. "We were patient at the plate and then when got a pitch to hit, we hit the ball pretty well, particularly in those two innings."
The Hodags alternated walks and hits at the bottom of the order to get things going in the second. Seth Nofftz scored on a wild pitch and Dylan Vanderbunt collected his first RBI of the spring on a single with nobody out in the inning. Ratty walked two batters later to load the bases and Schneider was hit by a pitch to force in a run. Owen Kurtz then hit an RBI single past third and Cody Everson followed with a two-run single that made it 6-0.
Kurtz and Everson drew back-to-back bases loaded walks in the third before Nofftz drove a three-run double to deep center. Heck doubled home Nofftz to make it 12-0 and the Hodags added one more in the fourth and Vanderbunt reached on an error and scored on a wild pitch.
Heck allowed two hits and struck out nine over 4 1/3 innings to get the win. Tyler Jablonski ended Heck's shutout bid on an RBI single with one out in the fifth. A walk then put the potential game-extending run on base and ended Heck's outing. Vanderbunt struck out back-to-back batters to end the game via the 10-run rule.
"James, once he got his footing initially and found a groove was able to strike out five in a row the first time through and was able to overcome some of his own mistakes, hit batsmen I think he had three of those and an occasional walk here and there, but he generally pitches with poise, with confidence and he's not afraid to come back, especially if he makes a mistake, he's not afraid to come back and atone for it," Waksmonski said.
Postseason matchup vs. Antigo
The Hodags found out last Wednesday that they will go on the road for the WIAA playoffs, receiving the No. 10 seed in a 14-team bracket. Rhinelander will play at seventh-seeded Antigo to begin the playoffs Thursday.
Given that the Hodags were a combined 0-4 against the three teams directly ahead of them in the bracket - Antigo, eighth-seeded Merrill and ninth-seeded Lakeland - at the time of the meeting, and held a doubleheader sweep over 11th-seeded Northland Pines, Waksmonski said Rhinelander's position was cut and dried.
"It basically did slot in how we expected," he said. "It was just a matter of just where exactly where we going to go, were we going to go to Antigo or were we going to go some place down in southwest Wisconsin. Thankfully we don't have to take the long ride down there. We know Antigo. We saw them earlier in the year. There's no surprises there. I'm pretty happy with what transpired (in the seeding meeting)."
The Red Robins swept a doubleheader from Rhinelander 12-2 and 12-8 early in the season. Antigo (8-9, 7-5 Great Northern) wound up third in the conference.
"I feel we've come a long way and they've come a long way as well," Waksmonski said. "They've played some close ball games against both Mosinee and Medford, had a shot (last) Monday to beat Mosinee. They had them and unfortunately had an error to let Mosinee back into it. They're playing good baseball as well, but so are we."
Final home games
Rhinelander closes out the regular season this afternoon at home against Stratford. That follows a non-conference game at home against Wausau East yesterday that concluded after press time for today's edition.
While the Hodags will have to manage their pitching staff carefully ahead of Thursday's playoff opener, Waksmonski said the games would serve as a chance to build a little confidence before the postseason.
"It's a great opportunity for our guys to see some pitching that they like, a little bit of faster pitching, hopefully, and get ourselves ready for Thursday against Antigo," he said.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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