River Monsters drop exhibition to Tomahawk

Thought to be a strength going into the start of the season, the depth of the Rhinelander River Monsters’ pitching staff is going to be tested greatly going into a key stretch of the Dairyland League season.

The Monsters hoped to use an exhibition game Saturday night against the Tomahawk Titans to work on that depth a bit, but may have left with more issues following a 12-7 loss at Stafford Field.

Prior to the contest, manager Todd Johnson said the Monsters found out that ace Joe Schneider will likely be unable to throw again until some point in July after experiencing elbow soreness following a relief outing the previous week against Everest. To make matters worse, reliever Easton Senoraske left the mound mid at-bat during the ninth inning Saturday night after feeling something amiss in his throwing arm following a pitch. Johnson also noted that Josh Randolph had a sore arm following 2 1/3 innings of relief on Saturday. 

“We thought, going into tonight, we’d throw a bullpen game, get everyone some work, sort of have a full, healthy staff, going into next weekend and we came out of it with probably more questions than we went into the game,” he said. 

As for the game itself, the Titans jumped on starter AJ Berg for eight runs over the first 1 2/3 innings to build a lead they would not relinquish. The Monsters managed seven runs, despite collecting only two hits in the contest. 

Mason Beatie went 5-for-5 with two home runs and five RBIs for Tomahawk. He and Zach Friske had back-to-back RBI two-out singles to give the Titans the early lead. 

Things went south for the Monsters again with two outs in the top of the second as Tyler Jablonski hit an RBI single, Jacob Kahle had a two-run hit and, following a Brady Martin walk, Beatie drilled a three-run shot to right to make it 8-0 and chase Berg from the mound. 

Friske drove in two on a infield hit in the fourth, Cody Strasman scored following a Jacob Kaminski double in the fifth and Beatie hit a leadoff homer to right in the eighth. 

Rhinelander tried to chip away. Tyler Blomdahl got aboard via a three-base error to right in the third and scored on a Cody Everson sacrifice fly. Joe Schneider, who hit but did not play in the field on Saturday, tripled and scored on a wild pitch in the fourth. Ben Quade walked and came around on a grounder by Jesse Robinson that made it 10-3 later in the inning. 

The Hodags loaded the bases with nobody out in the seventh, but only got two runs out of it as Senoraske scored on a wild pitch and Sam Schneider hit a sacrifice fly to plate Robinson. Jacob Dreifuerst hit a two-run double to right center in the ninth after the Titans extended the inning by committing a pair of errors. 

Jablonski and Friske had three hits each as Tomahawk outhit Rhinelander 15-2. Randolph allowed two runs on five hits over 2 1/3 innings of relief, Sam Schneider gave up a run on three hits over three innings and Senoraske’s only blemish in the eighth was Beatie’s second homer. Quade worked a scoreless ninth after Senoraske left the mound.

Jablonski pitched into the seventh before loading the bases with nobody out, allowing five runs on a hit. Kaminski struck out two over the final three innings to earn the save. 

“We hit some balls really hard but, give them credit,” Johnson said. “A couple we hit right at them, but their third baseman (Martin) played really well, made the plays, and it seemed like every time he’d make a play, the first baseman on the other end would make nice scoop. They played really good defense.”

Rhinelander (1-3) will now need to cobble together a staff for their busiest stretch of the season, aside from a potential postseason appearance. The Monsters have a rematch at Everest this coming Saturday afternoon and will then travel to Whittlesey the following day to complete a two-game weekend. 

While the Monsters figure to have Martin Hoger and Quinn Lamers around to eat up some innings, they’ll need to map out a pitching course that will likely not include Joe Schneider, Senoraske and other potential starting options Ryan Jamison and Isaac Bixby, who have limited availability in the summer due to work obligations.

“We’re going to have to get creative going into next weekend,” Johnson said. “We’re going to have to talk about that this week and see how a few guys are feeling. Right now, I don’t know how we’re going to do it, but we’re going to have to figure something out.”

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].