Rebels begin busy final week with Marathon loss

The Rhinelander Rebels’ recent funk continued Monday night at home against Marathon. The good news for Post 7 is it will have plenty more opportunities to get back on track before the start of the Class AA regional tournament a week from today.

Marathon jumped out to an early lead and never looked back, defeating the Rebels 9-1 Monday at Stafford Field.

All three phases of the game showed struggles at times Monday as the Rebels (8-10) lost for the fifth time in their last seven contests. 

Oscar Hanson walked four, hit two batters and gave up four runs over an inning-plus of work as the Rebels fell behind 4-0 in the second. A pair of two-out errors led to three more runs allowed in the fifth inning and Rhinelander had just four hits and struck out nine times Tyler Underwood went the distance for Marathon on the mound. 

“We scratch this one off as an experience and use it to build on for our next game against Medford,” Rebels manager Dan Huhnstock said afterward. 

Hanson recorded a couple of looking strikeouts in the first inning, but a leadoff single by Tyler Underwood and hitting Cale Quaintance with a 3-1 pitch came back to bite the Hodag righty. Underwood scored on a two-out wild pitch while Ean Shuda, Quaintance’s courtesy runner, scored on a two-out passed ball. 

Hanson walked three batters and hit another with a pitch to force in another run before being relieved in the second. 

“I’m sure Oscar hoped he would have been able to give us a little bit more length that what he did, getting an opportunity to start with a clean slate at the beginning of the game,” Huhnstock said. “He works hard and he just didn’t have it tonight. That buried us in a little bit of a hole.”

Max Ratty inherited a bases-loaded jam and limited the damage to only one more additional run as Quaintance drew a free pass with one out. From there Ratty pitched well, striking out seven over 5 1/3 innings with only one more walk. 

    Rhinelander’s Owen Kurtz makes an over-the-shoulder catch on a fly ball during the third inning of an American Legion baseball game against Marathon at Stafford Field Monday, July 15. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

Ultimately the defense came back and bit Ratty as the Rebels committed five errors, all with Ratty on the bump. Ratty wasn’t immune as he knocked down a Jorey Kunkel line drive with two out in the fifth inning. By the time he recovered, his rushed throw to first sailed wide, allowing Cody Radkte to score from second. 

A hit batter and a mishandled ground ball at short by Seth Nofftz loaded the bases for Quaintance who hit a ball that took a wicked hop over third baseman Sam Schneider for a two-run single that made it 7-1. 

Ratty gave up an infield hit to Tyler Underwood and plunked pinch-hitter Swayne Stencil with a pitch to begin the seventh. He got Quaintance to ground out as he reached the 105-pitch limit. Both runners scored as Grant Warren hit a two-out double to right off Schneider. 

“I thought Max came in and threw a very nice game. The defense let us down a little bit and, not enough hitting,” Huhnstock said.

Tyler Underwood carried a perfect game into the fourth inning. Rhinelander broke that up courtesy of back-to-back two-out doubles by Schneider and Kaden Vanney, leading to the Rebels’ lone run. Dylan Vanderbunt added a hit in the sixth and Conner Augustine had an infield hit for the Rebels in the seventh. Otherwise, it was slim pickings against Underwood, who did not walk a bater in a 101-pitch complete game.

“We made their pitcher — who did throw a very nice game — look better than what he was, I thought,” Huhnstock said. “He was spotting his off-speed pitches pretty good, throwing just enough of them. We swung too often early in the count at the off-speeds. That set up his fastball.”

The Rebels will have plenty of chances to work out of their recent funk to close out the regular season. That began with a home contest against Medford Wednesday that concluded after press time for today’s edition. The Rebels are slated to travel to Everest tonight and then will host Clintonville in a doubleheader tomorrow at Stafford Field beginning at 11 a.m.

Huhnstock said that many games in a short amount of time will help prepare the Rebels for the double-elimination regional tournament, which will begin Friday, July 26 in Merrill with a 5 p.m. opener against Minocqua. 

“It gets us in an mind-frame that we’ve got to be sharp and know we’re going to play a bunch of games,” he said. “It makes us think about pitching and lineups and stuff ahead of time, different scenarios. It’s good for both the team — we can figure out who can come up in the clutch — and good for us, as coaches, to figure out exactly what our lineup’s going to be.”

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].