Monsters swept out of WBA regionals

Despite battling injuries and availability, the Rhinelander River Monsters cobbled together enough of a pitching staff to finish above .500 in the Dairyland League and qualify for the WBA playoffs. 

However, the team’s piecemeal pitching situation loomed large Saturday in postseason play. 

Reliever Quinn Lamers allowed 10 runs in the seventh inning as the Monsters fell to Spring Valley 12-6 in the opening game of their WBA playoff pool in River Falls. Ryan Jamison was touched up in the nightcap while Tilden’s Easton Bobb tossed a seven-inning no hitter as the Tigers won 12-0. 

The two losses knocked 18th-seeded Rhinelander out of tournament play. Twelfth-seeded Spring Valley defeated fourth-seeded Tilden 12-10  in a 15-inning thriller Sunday to advance to the WBA state tournament. 

“We knew Tilden, when you’re playing the defending state champions, we knew they were going to be tough,” River Monsters’ manager Todd Johnson said. “But Spring Valley, I still feel that was a game we could have won. It’s just unfortunate how that game ended.” 

The River Monsters used some well-placed hitting to jump out to a 4-2 lead over Spring Valley in the fourth inning. 

Despite walking seven batters over six innings, starter Martin Hoger did not allow any runs after the first inning. 

Things went south early for Lamers in his relief appearance as an infield hit and two walks loaded the bases with nobody out. Scott Sayles tied it for the Hawks on a two-run double that fell just in front of a diving Kurt Zuiker in left center. Casey Ryan gave Spring Valley the lead moments later on an RBI single to right. Treyson Witt added a two-run single, Garrett Guthrie hit a sacrifice fly. Derek Meyer and Gradien Monicken added RBI singles up the middle and Blaine Guthrie delivered the coup de grâce to Lamers with a two-run single to left. 

“It all started with what seemed to be a little innocent one-hopper to first base that turned into an error and a catch in center that would have been a nice catch that goes off Kurt’s glove. That’s a catch he’ll make 99 times out of 100. It was just the classic snowball effect,” Johnson said. 

With Josh Randolph unable to make the trip and the Monsters saving Ryan Jamison to start the second game, Rhinelander had very few options to make a change when things started to go awry. Eventually, Ben Quade came in to relieve Lamers. Quade, who had thrown only one inning previously this summer, walked in the final run of the seventh before working a scoreless eighth.

“That first game it hurt not to have Josh Randolph, hurt not to have one extra arm, because that’s what we needed. If we had that, the outcome probably would have been a little different,” Johnson said. 

Spring Valley got on the board first, setting the table with singles by Monicken and Blaine Guthrie with one out in the first. Sayles hit a sacrifice fly to center and Guthrie scored on an overthrow from the plate after stealing third base.  

Rhinelander had runners in scoring position each of the first three innings, but didn’t cash in until the fourth. Three consecutive singles by Sam Schneider, Jacob Dreifuerst and Hoger loaded the bases with nobody out. Tyler Blomdahl added a flare to left that dropped in for a fourth straight hit to put the Monsters on the board. Lamers legged out a slow roller to third with two outs to score Dreifuerst and tie the game. Easton Senoraske gave the Monsters the lead on the very next pitch as he smacked a two-run single to left. 

Lamers made a sliding catch in left to get the Monsters out of a two-on jam in the fifth. Hoger walked the bases loaded in the sixth, but got Derek Meyer to ground out to third to end the threat. 

Jamison added a pinch-hit two-run double in the eighth for Rhinelander to account for the final margin. 

The Hodags were hoping Jamison would keep them close in the Tilden game, but he walked seven over five innings and the Tigers bats eventually got to him, scoring three in the second, four in the third, one in the fourth and four in the fifth. 

“The second game, it was a tight zone and Jamo just wasn’t getting those calls on the edges and just way too many walks. You can’t do that against a good team,” Johnson said.

Bobb, who won Big Rivers Conference pitcher of the year honors for Chippewa Falls High School this spring, was dominant on the other side. The Division-I of St. Thomas University recruit carried a perfect game into the fifth before hitting Joe Schneider with an 0-2 pitch. Sam Schneider drew a leadoff walk in the sixth. Otherwise, the Monsters had no answer for Bobb, who fanned seven of the last nine batters he faced and finished with 13 strikeouts. 

“During the course of the season we don’t see many lefties throwing 90 and I know he touched that a few times,” Johnson said. “He was just flat out good. Other than a couple of times where we got some solid contact, we were just totally overmatched.”

The two losses in regional play dropped Rhinelander’s overall record to 7-8 in year two of its return to adult baseball. 

“It was a good season. I think the takeaway from it is when we have all of our guys, when we have sort of our front-line pitching, we’re very good. If we don’t we become more of an average team,” Johnson said. “It’s sort of up to them what they want it to be. We battled a lot of adversity with injuries … We overcame a lot of that, but those guys, when we have all of our team together, they’re very good.”  

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].