Medford pulls away from Hodag baseball in 12-1 decision

The Medford Raiders did not have any big innings on Thursday, just a succession of good innings as they slowly pulled away from the Rhinelander Hodags.

Medford took the lead for good in a three-run second inning and defeated Rhinelander 12-1 at Stafford Field.

The Raiders swept the home-and-home series from the Hodags (1-9, 1-5 Great Northern) after defeating Rhinelander 7-3 in Medford last Tuesday. Rhinelander has dropped three in a row since its first win of the year, and coach Joe Waksmonski said it was a similar refrain holding back his squad.

“They’re a good offense but we had far too many walks and mistakes defensively that helped them out and pushed across a couple more runs,” he said as Medford plated five of its 12 runs on the night without the aid of an RBI. “They hit the ball well in certain spots. We had seven or eight hits on the night but they ended up making a couple of real nice defensive play whereas we didn’t come up with the big defensive play to put an end to an inning.”

Oscar Hanson started and took the loss for the Hodags — leaving the mound before recording an out in the second inning. Waksmonski noted that Hanson appeared to aggravate his leg as he fielded a ground ball to end the opening inning. The first five batters reached against Hanson in the second inning — with a pair of walks and a pair of hit batters before the Hodags went to the bullpen. 

“The last play of the first inning he might of tweaked something coming out (to field a ground ball). You could kind of tell he was laboring and we made a decision to make the switch,” Waksmonski said. 

Hayden Strebig was hit by a pitch and Evan Wilkins walked, both with the bases loaded, to give Medford a 3-1 lead before the Hodags turned to Dylan Vanderbunt out of the pen. Strebig scored on a Parker Lissner sacrifice fly, but Vanderbunt was able to get Rhinelander out of the inning without any further damage. 

An error on Vanderbunt allowed two runs the score in the third. Medford was kept off the board again until the fifth as Strebig hit a one-out double to plate Charlie Gierl. Vanderbunt hit some trouble the third time through the Raider lineup, loading the bases via a hit and two walks in the sixth before surrendering an RBI single to Carson Carbaugh and a bases-loaded walk to Gierl. The Raiders tacked on two more runs, both unearned, on Vanderbunt in the seventh as Braxton Weissmiller and Max Dietzman both collected hits before scoring on back-to-back two out errors.

    Rhinelander’s Dylan Vanderbunt pitches during a GNC baseball game against Medford at Stafford Field Thursday, April 25. Vanderbunt pitched 5 2/3 innings of long relief in the Hodags’ 12-1 loss. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

Overall, Vanderbunt went 5 2/3 innings in relief, giving up eight runs, five earned, on eight hits with three walks and four strikeouts.

“I thought Dylan came in, in a tight spot and was able, for the most part keep them out of the inning, but it was one or two runs every inning it seemed like. We just couldn’t quite slam the door each inning,” Waksmonski said. 

Rhinelander’s lone run came in the bottom of the first as Vanderbunt singled and scored on a base hit by Adrian Patrone. 

Seth Nofftz had three hits at the top of the Hodags’ lineup on Thursday and Vanderbunt recorded hits fourth-straight multi-hit game for Rhinelander. The Hodags had seven hits in all against Nick Steliga, who struck out five in a complete-game effort for the Raiders. 

“Our guys were aggressive and they were putting on good swings,” Waksmonski said. “There were a bunch of loud outs tonight, hard-hit balls to the outfield, hard-hit ground balls. They’re a very good defensive team. They would calmly make the play, make the throw and move on.”

Rhinelander was scheduled to open a home-and-home conference series against Lakeland at Stafford Field on Monday and will be back home this afternoon to face D.C. Everest in non-conference play. The Hodags will make the return trip to Minocqua to face the T-Birds again on Thursday.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].