Hodag softball drops pair of conference games

The Rhinelander High School softball team dropped a pair of Great Northern Conference games late last week, falling to Antigo 19-0 at home Thursday before traveling to Medford on Friday and suffering an 11-1 defeat.

As has been the case recently, the Hodags struggled in the opening inning defensively, giving up eight runs in the first to both the Red Robins and the Raiders. Things leveled off for a couple of innings in both games before the fourth inning helped put the opposing team over the run-rule limit.

“We were making good contact and playing pretty solid defense after the 1st inning,” Hodag co-coach Sadie Adamski said. “But as (co-coach) Ali (Bender) and I keep saying, it was really hard for us to come back after we had a rough first inning. Every game it seems we can’t get past our first inning.”

The Hodags committed three errors in the opening inning on Tuesday, which helped the Red Robins along, and Antigo got RBI extra-base hits from Molly Neufeld, Bethany Lewis and Sydnie Heinzen in the eight-run frame. 

Rhinelander sat Antigo down in order in the second, held the Robins to one run in the third, and three in the fourth. A couple of more errors added Antigo in a seven-run fifth.

Nevaeh Anderson pitched all five innings for Rhinelander. She gave up 19 runs, 14 earned, on 13 hits with six walks and a pair of strikeouts.

“This is a game that the score should have been a lot different, and we have to clean up our defense,” Bender said. “Nevaeh pitched great. All we have asked from the pitching staff all season is to throw strikes and she did that for us.”

Lewis struck out seven for Antigo in a one-hit effort. Chase Verbist singled off of her in the third.

On Friday in Medford, the defense was better in the first inning, but the battery had a difficult time keeping the ball from getting to the backstop. 

Anderson started again, but walked four in only two-thirds of an inning. There were three wild pitches and three passed balls that allowed runs to score. Medford had only one RBI in the eight-run opener.

Kelsey Winter came on to end the first and slowed the Raiders down from there. She logged 3 2/3 innings of relief, allowing three runs on a five hits with only one walk and a couple of strikeouts.

“Kelsey came in from right field to pitch and she was doing great,” Adamski said. “She was pitching well and she had her defense to back her up. We were happy she could back us up and have some good innings on the mound.”

Rhinelander strung together some success off Medford’s Tori Konieczny in the fourth inning. Kelsi Beran, Libbey Buchmann and Anderson hit back-to-back-to-back singles to start the frame, with Anderson’s single producing the Hodags’ lone run. Rhinelander also got hits from Verbist and Lily Treder in the contest. 

“We did make some good improvements from last time we played Medford, and Ali and I were very happy to see that,” Adamski said, referencing a 22-3 loss to the Raiders in the teams’ first meeting back on April 18.

The Hodags (1-6, 1-10) travel to Eagle River to face Northland Pines this afternoon. Rhinelander got its lone win of the season against the Eagles, 14-6, back on April 4.

“We need to have confidence the first inning and get ahead right away with the bats,” Bender said. “We have been hitting well, and we continue to tell the girls eventually we will hit the gaps. Moving forward our goal is to continue to make improvements on defense and playing behind our pitcher, as well as pitching strikes. If we can do those two things we will be in games.”

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].