Snowhawks down Wickman for fifth win of the summer

It’s been the summer of the Snowhawks as Lake Tomahawk’s snowshoe baseball team won big again this week.

The Snowhawks beat Wickman Construction 24-3 in seven innings on Monday night.

“A lot of swings last night fell for base hits,” coach Jeff Smith said. “I know they probably should have had a few of them on defense. If we can keep that going through next week, it’ll be a heck of a game against Dazzle’s. We’ll have a full team next week.”

Similar to last week, all 10 Snowhawks scored at least one run in the contest. At one point the Snowhawks held an 18-0 lead after four innings.

Everyone came to hit for the Snowhawks. They scored the maximum five runs in the first three innings. 

“That means the guys at the bottom of the order are hitting too,” Smith said.

Jesse Robinson scored two with an extra-base hit in the bottom of the first.

Cole Punches made it 9-0 in the second inning with a two-run double to center. The Snowhawks scored all five runs in the second with two outs.

In the third inning, the Snowhawks had five straight RBI hits starting with Nick Pitterly and ending with Robinson.

“Maybe the warm weather,” Smith said about the hot hitting. “It could be the warm-up we’ve had finally. Everybody feels good.”

Wickman Construction struggled to get runners on base. They had just three batters reach base in the first four innings.

“They just could not get balls past us,” Smith said. “They hit a lot of balls right at us. (Shortstop) Derek (Young) was busy. When they did get a guy on, it was pretty easy to pick off second base. They could never get anything going. It’s kind of a newer group of guys. These guys were not bad ball players, they haven’t had the experience of (snowshoes).”

A couple of Snowhawks displayed a sense of theatrics in the fifth inning. Don Moore reached base with a hit to right field. He scampered to second base with his speed. With the ball back to the infield, Moore kept running. He initially stopped at third before quickly running home for a run.

“One of the at-bats, (Don) said he was going to keep on running,” Smith said. “All it takes is someone (to make) a misthrow. He’s pretty fast on (snowshoes). It was fun to see. The crowd enjoys that too.”

Next up, Robinson did something similar. He hit a moonshot to deep left field and stopped at third base for a triple. With a miscue in the field, he ended up running home for another Snowhawk run.

Those runs summed up the game for the Snowhawks. They once again scored five runs in the fifth inning and led 23-2.

    Jaylen Lussier of Wickman Construction hits an RBI double to left in the fifth inning against the Snowhawks Monday, July 15 at Snowshoe Park in Lake Tomahawk. (Brett LaBore/Lakeland Times)
  

Wickman Construction scored their first two runs in the fifth inning. Chad Johnson reached with a single to left. Trevor Goings also reached with a hit. 

Jaylen Lussier drove in Wickman Construction’s first run with a double to left.

In a rare occurrence, Wickman Construction came to bat in the seventh inning without snowshoes. It’s something the Snowhawks used to allow teams to do. 

“It used to happen a long time ago, before my time, and it was brought to my attention when we get a big enough lead, sometimes it’s best to let the team go, and that’s what we did,” Smith said. “That changes the game. It’s faster for them. They can get around the bases pretty quick. We are going to start doing that again. That was a great idea I thought. It puts a different spin on the game. I’m glad (Tod Niemuth) mentioned it.”

Wickman Construction got one run out of it. Kris Neuman doubled and later scored. Johnson reached with an RBI fielder’s choice.

The game ended after seven innings for the second straight week due to time constraints.

“When the clock is starting to tick towards 9 o’clock, we tend to cut it off at seven,” Smith said. “We don’t like the game to go too much past nine. If it’s already a tight game of course we’ll let it go. When it’s a little out of hand, we try to trim it down to seven innings.”

Up next, the Snowhawks (5-0) will take on Bucketheads Dazzle’s Demons on Monday, July 22 at Snowshoe Park in Lake Tomahawk. 

Robinson will switch jerseys for that game as he leads the Rhinelander-based squad into action.

“Very, very good team. Jesse puts that team together,” Smith said. “It’s guys he’s played with in Rhinelander. Half the guys have played on the Snowhawks one time or another. They’re very well-versed in snowshoes. They hit the ball all over the place. We’ll have our hands definitely full next week.”

Action will begin with the fifth annual Home Run Derby at 7 p.m. with the game to follow at 7:30 p.m.

Brett LaBore may be reached at [email protected] or [email protected].