Crandon edges mistake-prone Rebels 6-5

The Rhinelander Post 7 Rebels nearly had walk-off magic for the second game in a row, but this time it was not to be. 

The Rebels stranded the bases loaded in the seventh inning and fell to Crandon Post 94 6-5 Monday night at Stafford Field. The loss came three days after Rhinelander beat Minocqua 6-5 at home on a walk-off single by Tyler Chariton in the seventh.

Ultimately, Rhinelander’s own miscues led to its undoing. The Rebels committed six errors in the contest, and all six of Crandon’s runs were unearned. 

“We’ve got to clean it up defensively. We’re a good enough team that, if we do that, we win a lot of games,” Rebels manager Dan Huhnstock said.

While Rhinelander worked its way out of a number of self-inflicted jams, it couldn’t escape a mistake that led to what proved to be the game-winning rally in the sixth. Sam Schneider, playing at shortstop Monday with Seth Nofftz (illness) out of the lineup, mishandled a ground ball by Brady Shepard to lead off the inning. 

Shepard later scored on a one-out double by Mason Mullins. After Maverik Mayer popped out, the free out came back to bite Rhinelander as Caden Palubicki took a 1-1 offering by Kaden Vanney deep to left center for a two-run homer that gave Crandon a 6-5 lead. 

“They finally had a couple of hard-hit balls. Earlier in the game it was mostly weak contact and errors that put us in jams,” Huhnstock said. 

Another mistake-filled inning allowed Crandon to jump out to an early 3-0 lead in the second. Crandon loaded the bases with nobody out as Matthew Jahnke reached on an error at third by Cody Everson, Kruz Kulinski walked and Shepard bunted for a base hit after the Rebels were tardy covering first base. Maverik Mayer added an RBI single and Ryan Schunk hit a two-run single to left, scoring Kulinski. Shepard also scored on the play after Owen Kurtz mishandled the ball in left field. 

Rhinelander rallied to tie it in the bottom of the inning. Kurtz had an RBI double to score Vanney followed by RBI groundouts by Everson and Conner Augustine. Kurtz then hit his first home run of the year, a lead-off shot to left center off Schunk, to put Rhinelander ahead 4-3 in the fourth. 

“He was seeing the ball well early and really barreled up a couple of nice ones, got himself a home run there. Excellent job by him tonight,” Huhnstock said.

Rhinelander tacked on one more insurance run in the fifth as Schneider walked, moved to third on an error and then scored on an overthrow on a pickoff attempt. 

Otherwise, the Rebels failed to plate key runs in the mid-to-late innings, stranding a runner on third base in each of the last four frames. Dylan Vanderbunt twice grounded out with a runner at third and two outs in the fourth and the sixth. Kurtz struck out swinging to leave Vanney stranded at third in the fifth. 

The Rebels loaded the bases with one out in the seventh courtesy of a John Turek walk, a single by Schneider and walk by Max Ratty, but Kurtz struck out and Everson grounded back to the mound to end the game with the tying run at third and the winning run at second. 

“It’s a game that we should end up winning but, we just didn’t pull it off this week. All we needed was one more clutch hit but, unfortunately we did not quite get it,” Huhnstock said.

Vanney took a tough-luck loss for Rhinelander. Though he allowed six runs on nine hits over 5 2/3 innings, all six runs were unearned as he walked two and struck out five. Kurtz walked one and struck out one as he worked the final inning and a third scoreless.

“Great pitching effort tonight by Kaden. Owen came in and shut the door on them also,” Huhnstock noted.

Schunk worked 6 1/3 innings for Crandon, allowing five runs on seven hits with three walks and five strikeouts. Carsyn Mayer inherited a two-on, one-out jam in the seventh and recorded a walk and a strikeout as he picked up the save. 

Crandon outhit Rhinelander 9-7 in the contest. Mullins, Maverik Mayer and Caden Palubicki had two hits each for Crandon while Vanney, Kurtz and Everson had two hits each for Rhinelander.

Rhinelander dropped to 6-7 on the year with the loss as it enters a busy stretch to close out the regular season. The Rebels picked up a home game with Everest on Wednesday — a make-up of a June 21 rainout — that concluded after press time for today’s edition. Rhinelander heads to Tomahawk for a doubleheader this evening and will host Marathon on Monday to kick off a five-game week.

“We’re going to be real busy down the stretch here, three more games this week and then five the following week. Everybody will get a chance to play a lot of ball,” Huhnstock said.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].