May 22, 2023 at 7:22 a.m.
Hodag softball edges Shawano 1-0 in playoffs
RHS to face top-ranked Medford next
Hodag softball edges Shawano 1-0 in playoffs
"Before every batter, I'm just like, 'it's just playing catch,'" she said.
Treder came up with the catch of the year for the Hodag softball team, robbing Marissa Tomashek of a potential game-tying hit with one out in the seventh as the Hodags preserved a 1-0 win over the Hawks in a Division 2 regional quarterfinal game at Andrea Musson Field.
Treder, who also scored the game's lone run following a leadoff triple in the second inning, gave the catch "about a 6 or 7" for a degree of difficulty. She said she didn't have a lot of time to react as the ball screamed toward the gap in left-center, making it a matter of see ball, chase ball, catch ball.
"That's it. I ran to it and I caught it," Treder said.
The play was far more tense than she made it sound, especially considering that Tomashek was 3-for-3 at that point in the contest and had a chance to tie it after Aubrey Holsten led off the seventh with a single past second and then was bunted along by Gabrielle Koenig.
"She's been pretty clutch all year," coach D.J. DeMeyer said. "She plays a really good center field. I think she's our top hitter right now. I think she's probably sixth or seventh in the conference in hitting. She's a gamer. She plays hard."
After that, senior ace Addi DeMeyer slammed the door, getting Abigail Bystol to pop out to the pitcher's circle as the Hodags collected their first playoff win since 2021.
"I'm proud of the girls. We played sound defense and if we didn't get the ball in the fly ball, we're backing it up," coach DeMeyer said. "What we've preached all year on the defensive side showed today."
The Hodags collected only three hits off Shawano freshman Kadence Meyers but did just enough damage in the second inning. Treder led off the inning with a triple to deep right center and scored moments later on a sacrifice fly to center by fellow junior Laney Haenel.
"She had the triple to get on third and Laney Haenel had the big RBI sac fly to get her in," coach DeMeyer said. "That's what we've got to understand, every little thing counts. It's important to get that runner in from third when we get them there."
That was all the run support Addi DeMeyer needed, despite there being doubt going into the contest as to whether she would be able to pitch. She didn't pitch in the Hodags' regular season finale last Friday against Wausau East after taking a line drive to her pitching arm late in Rhinelander's 1-0 win at Lakeland May 11.
Regardless, the senior struck out seven, walked only one and worked around six Shawano hits in the contest - all despite suffering another minor injury prior to the game.
"That arm's still bothering her from that line drive and in warm-ups she was taking some ground balls at short and took a ball right off her pitching thumb, ripped a nail," coach DeMeyer explained. "We didn't know what we were going to get today. I give her a lot of credit. She's a gamer also. She just goes, goes, goes, goes. She was in pain, obviously, but proud of her."
The Hodags didn't have much offense the rest of the way. Freshman Kadyn Taylor hit a two-out single after Treder scored in the second. That was Rhinelander's only other base runner until the sixth when Maddi Roeser singled to right with two out before DeMeyer grounded out to end the frame.
The Hawks also had the tying run at third in both the fifth in sixth innings. Holsten reached on an error in the fifth, advanced on a wild pitch and got to third on a one-out single by Tomashek, but Addi DeMeyer got a pop-out by Bystol and a groundout by Abbygail Wachtel to wiggle out of the jam.
DeMeyer's lone walk was a leadoff free pass to Braylyn Babino in the sixth. Ella Stuber bunted Babino to second and a passed ball got her to third, but DeMeyer induced a groundout back to the mound by Macey Krueger and struck out Meyers to end the inning.
"Give credit to Shawano, they played a solid game," coach DeMeyer said. "Their pitcher kept us off balance. We hit the ball, hit it right at them. They'd the ball, hit it right at us. I think we only had three hits and I don't know how many they had, but there were some hard hit balls that we made some plays on."
Rhinelander's reward for winning is a third meeting this year with top-seeded Medford, which also checked in No. 1 in the final WFSCA D2 coaches poll of the regular season. Medford swept the regular season series over the Hodags 5-0 and 13-3.
"They're a good team but we seemed, in the season, to play better against Medford," coach DeMeyer said. "We just didn't put together a complete game against them. If we can put a complete game against them, you never know what could happen."
Today's game is scheduled for 5 p.m. in Medford. The winner of the contest will advance to Thursday's regional final around against either Merrill or Antigo.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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