Monsters miss clutch hits in Marshfield loss

The Rhinelander River Monsters outhit the Marshfield Chaparrals on Saturday. They just didn’t get the timely hits they needed to pick up a key insurance win for the WBA tournament resume. 

Riley Bauman’s two-run homer in the fifth inning proved to be the difference as the Chaps beat the River Monsters 4-2 in Marshfield. 

The Monsters were just 1 for 11 on the day with runners in scoring position. The lone hit was a two-run single by Jacob Dreifuerst that tied the game in the fourth inning. Rhinelander had a runner in scoring position with nobody out in five of the nine innings on Saturday, but just struggled to find a clutch hit.

“Overall, we had traffic on the bases, we just couldn’t get the right hit at the right time,” Rhinelander manager Todd Johnson said. 

Martin Hoger worked 6 1/3 innings in the loss for Rhinelander. He struggled with command early, walking four batters in the opening inning. Sloan Welch and Ben Dietsche drew bases-loaded free passes with two out to put Marshfield on the board.

Hoger settled in from there, retiring 10 straight batters before Shawn Bryant led off the fifth with a single for Marshfield. He was erased on a pickoff move and Rhinelander nearly got out of the inning still tied, but Kenny Schultz hit a two-out single up the middle and Bauman fought back from down 0-2 to drill a 2-2 offering from Hoger out to straightaway center to give Marshfield the lead for good. 

Hoger walked eight, struck out four and allowed four runs on five hits on the day.

“Martin, he threw fantastic. He wasn’t as sharp in the first inning. Four walks led to two runs,” Johnson said. “After that he settled in and went well over 100 pitches and threw fantastic. He gave up the one home run, but that’s going to happen. Super happy with the way Martin pitched.”

Josh Randolph inherited a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the seventh after Hoger walked back-to-back batters, but got a shallow fly out to right by Colin DeBoer and struck out Welch looking to end the threat. 

Rhinelander, meanwhile, was unable to do anything with some promising offensive situations in the late innings. Dreifuerst singled and Kolby Ridderbusch walked to give the Monsters two on with nobody out in the seventh, but Andy VanDyke struck out and, following a Kurt Zuiker sacrifice, Randolph went down looking to end that threat. 

Joe Schneider led off with a double in the eighth. He was stuck on second after Sam Schneider flew out to center and Hoger struck out looking before getting thrown out while trying to steal third with two strikes on Tyler Blomdahl.

Blomdahl ended up doubling down the left field line to begin the ninth. After a Dreifuerst single, Ridderbusch was hit by a pitch to load the bases with nobody out, but VanDyke lined into a double play at first and Zuiker flew out to center to end the game. 

“We just couldn’t string the hits together and when we did get runners in scoring position is seemed like we’ve have a strikeout and a fly out, something like that where we couldn’t get the runs across,” Johnson said.

Rhinelander outhit Marshfield 7-5 in the loss. Dreifuerst had three of those hits to improve his average to .292 on the summer. 

“That was good. He hit the ball a couple of times pretty hard,” Johnson said. “That was definitely good to see. He’s been playing great ball for us all summer and, defensively, he’s really solid at first.” 

Cole Hediger worked into the ninth for Marshfield, allowing two runs on seven hits with five walks and 10 strikeouts. Welch came on after Blomdahl and Dreifuerst reached in the ninth to earn the save. 

The loss put Rhinelander back to .500 (5-5) in Dairyland League play and dropped the club into fifth in the large division standings behind Everest (7-3), Marshfield (6-3), Wisconsin Rapids (6-4) and Whittlesey (6-5). The Monsters will close out league play this coming weekend when they host Whittlesey on Saturday and travel to Minocqua (3-6) on Sunday. Rhinelander could conceivably finish anywhere between secon and sixth in the league, which leaves its WBA postseason status in some doubt entering the final week.

The tournament field and pairings will not be announced until after the regular season concludes. Last year, the top five teams from the Dairyland Large made the WBA playoffs.

“I’m not exactly sure if we’re in a must-win situation or not. I’m going to have to try to figure that out this week,” Johnson admitted. “Whittlesey and you look at Minocqua, maybe not the best record but they beat Everest the other day — not only beat them but beat them handedly. Like we always talk about, no easy games in this league. It’s going to be a big week and it would be nice to come out of there with a couple of wins next week going into the tournament.”

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].