Team review: RHS baseball

The Rhinelander High School baseball team was seven outs away from beating an Ashland team that eventually pushed Medford to extra innings with a spot in the sectional round of the WIAA tournament on the line. 

The Hodags gave up three runs at that point and lost to the Oredockers 3-1 in the opening round of the WIAA tournament. In a way, that game was a microcosm of the 2024 season for the Hodags which, by the numbers, was the least successful on the field in coach Joe Waksmonski’s 18-year tenure with the program. 

The Hodags won only one game and finished last in the Great Northern Conference. The losses were a mix of lopsided defeats and games like the one in Ashland that appeared to be within reach, had the team come up with a clutch hit, a key defensive play, or simply had some good, old-fashioned luck.

“We thanked them for their effort and their great attitude,” Waksmonski said following the season-ending loss. “We ended up 1-19 and they showed a lot of fight, a lot of heart and a lot of energy today. We thanked them for that just, unfortunately we didn’t make enough plays in the end to win today.”

Here are five storylines from the recently completed season.

Early season slide

The season started with optimism. Prior to the opener, Waksmonski said he felt the team had the capability of vying to finish within the top half of the conference and contending for a top-eight seed in the WIAA tournament, which would have resulted in a home playoff game. 

Thanks to a mild winter the team got an early start to the season. Rhinelander played a non-conference doubleheader against Stratford in Wisconsin Rapids April 6, the earliest date for a season opener since 2019. 

However the Hodags had a hard time getting out of the starting gates. They dropped that doubleheader to Stratford 13-1 and 8-2 and another the following weekend to Wisconsin Rapids 13-0 and 9-0. In between there was an 8-0 loss to Antigo. 

Overall, the Hodags dropped their first six games of the year, scoring on eight runs in those contest.

“We’ve seen some really incredible pitching early on in the season,” Waksmonski said after Wisconsin Rapids’ Gage Honeyager carried a perfect game into the seventh inning of the nightcap of their twinbill against the Hodags. “I can’t ever remember going into a season where we’re seeing pitching like this. The guys that we’re seeing are around the zone, throwing hard, plus fastballs, plus off-speed stuff. 

Dropping the close ones

Once the Hodags got into conference play, an inability to win the close games loomed large in a conference that featured plenty of parity behind eventual state runner-up Mosinee and sectional finalist Medford. 

Rhinelander saw plenty of chances to win conference games slip away. They led 5-3 after five innings at home against Northland Pines, only to lose in extra innings, 8-5. In the home rematch against Antigo the Robins broke a 5-all tie after five innings with single runs in the sixth and seventh to prevail 7-5. Lakeland scored the tying and go-ahead runs without the aid of a hit in the sixth inning as they stole the second game of a doubleheader 7-6 from Rhinelander, sweeping the twinbill. 

Tomahawk swept Rhinelander in GNC play for the first time since 2014. After spotting the Hatchets an early 7-0 lead at home, the Hodags got back within 7-6 going to the seventh, only to allow six more runs in a 13-6 loss. That was followed by a 3-2 loss at Tomahawk three days later in which the Hatchets rallied for two in the fifth following a pair of defensive mistakes to take the lead for good. 

“We seem to find different ways to bite ourselves in the butt, so to speak,” Waksmonski said following that game. “It’s easy to point out throwing the ball away to score the third run, but we had multiple chances with runners in scoring position. If we just put the ball in play one time and we score a run. Other times we had second and third or bases loaded and we’re striking out or popping up or whatever the case may be.”

Overall, Rhinelander was just 1-7 on the year in games that were within a run or tied at some point in or after the fifth inning. 

Statbook

The biggest question mark for the Hodags going into the season was at the plate as the team graduated a number of its top hitters from the 2023 season. 

Offense did end up being an issue for the team, which hit .207 on the season and just .161 with runners in scoring position. 

    In this April 30, 2024 file photo, Rhinelander’s Dylan Vanderbunt hits a single during a non-conference baseball game against D.C. Everest at Stafford Field. Vanderbunt led the Hodags with a .362 batting average this spring. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

Rhinelander had only three players who registered at least 20 at-bats hit over .200 on the season. Junior Dylan Vanderbunt led the way in that regard, hitting .362 with a double and four RBIs. Those numbers helped him earn second-team honors in the GNC as an outfielder.

“Dylan was a dual-threat guy for us, being in centerfield. As a pitcher he had a couple of different roles for us, starting pitcher and relief pitcher,” Waksmonski said. “In the outfield, he was our leader in center. He kind of grew into his role and started making more of the elaborate plays, the harder plays, as the season went on. In the order, he started off as our No. 9 hitter and then he just kept hitting the ball and eventually worked his way up to the top.”

Junior Seth Nofftz (.288, 1 RBI) and senior Kaden Vanney (.283, 9 RBIs) were the only other Hodag hitters above .200 on the year. 

On the mound, Max Ratty was the team’s No. 1 option, but posted an 0-6 record with a 5.34 ERA. He had 39 strikeouts and 23 walks over 38 innings of work. He was part of a rotation that, aside from Vanderbunt, featured all seniors. James Heck was second on the team in innings pitched (30 2/3) and went 1-5 with a 6.16 ERA. Vanderbunt logged 27 innings, going 0-4 with a 7.00 ERA. Vanney made 10 appearances, virtually all in relief, and had a 9.88 ERA over 11 1/3 innings. 

Rhinelander also struggled behind the plate replacing last year’s everyday catcher Sam Schneider. Senior Adrian Patrone saw the majority of innings at catcher, with sophomore Chandler Servent getting more time there later in the year. The two combined to throw out only 6 of 106 base stealers on they year and had 28 passed balls.

Defense, as a whole, was a struggle for Rhinelander, which had a .908 fielding percentage on the year. That was slightly down from .910 in 2023 and a far cry from the .928 field percentage the team had when it made a run to the sectional finals in 2021.

Struggles to replicate

Collectively and individually, the Hodags struggled to replicate their numbers from 2023. The team’s overall batting average dropped 15 points from .222 in 2023, and was way down with runners in scoring position after hitting .274 in those situations the year prior.

Pitching seemed to be the big puzzler, considering that virtually all of the team’s arms from 2023 returned. The staff ERA went up more than a full point this year, to 6.46 from 5.30. Much of that could be directed toward free bases. Rhinelander’s walk per game rate went up from 5.55 last year to 6.46 this season. 

What’s next

While 2024 was undoubtedly a down year for the program, there are signs that the struggles could be only temporary in nature, given that the Hodag JV squad was 18-3 on the year with a number of freshmen who were on a 12U Little League All-Star team that made it to state in 2021. That started a run of three straight years that the Hodag Little League program has sent at least one of its all-star teams to state. 

Furthermore, there has already shown some success in American Legion play, sitting at 6-6 through its first 12 games of the season with a squad that mainly consists of this year’s varsity team. 

As for returning players, the team will return its top two hitters from the spring in Vanderbunt and Nofftz. In all seven players who saw consistent varsity time this spring will be slated to return. On the pitching front, senior-to-be Mason Schmidt — who threw at the JV level this spring — has looked strong in his five outings for the Rebels this summer, allowing just two unearned runs with 23 strikeouts over 19 1/3 innings. 

With seven seniors moving on, Waksmonski said the make-up of next year’s team will likely look much different. He said there figures to be a lot of open competition for spots going into next spring. Much of that, he said, will hinge on how much work the players put in during the offseason, and how confident they are entering 2025.

“Confidence is the belief in yourself and that comes from preparation,” he said at the team’s banquet. “I think confidence next year will come from believing that you’ve gotten yourself prepared. It starts with open gym, doing stuff on your own, doing all the little things so that you feel you are prepared to win some games next year.”

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].