Team review: RHS softball

By the numbers, it was certainly a tough first year for the Rhinelander High School softball program under first-year co-head coaches Sadie Adamski and Ali Bender.

The Hodags won only one game, tied for sixth in the Great Northern Conference and saw only two of its 17 games on the season reach a full seven innings. 

Rhinelander was simply outmatched in the majority of its games. That made for a long season where successes were measured in small victories and not necessarily on the scoreboard. It also served as a lesson in persevering through adversity.

“We had a lot of ups and downs, but just kind of sticking together, working through it,” Adamski said earlier this month during the team’s banquet. “Some people stepped up big time but, overall, I’m really happy we all stuck through it, got through it and there are just going to continue to be improvements every single year as we go forward.”

Here are five storylines from the recently completed season. 

First win

Easily the biggest highlight of the season for the Hodags came at home in early April when they scored their first and only win — a 14-6 victory over Northland Pines. 

That win came on the heels of three lopsided losses in the Danny Mac Invite to start the year in March. The team had more than a week to prepare and appeared ready for Pines, which was playing in its season opener.

“I think they realize we practice how we play,” Adamski said afterward. “It’s going to show up in a game. These girls have been working really hard at practices. Even when we’ve had an hour of a practice, they’re working hard. They’re getting after it. It feels great to have a first win on the season.”

It was easily Rhinelander’s best offensive output of the year. The Hodags had 13 hits and took control of the contest with 10 unanswered runs between the third and fourth innings. 

Laney Haenel started and pitched four innings in the win while Kelsey Winter worked the final three innings scoreless to earn the save. 

Growing pains

Unfortunately for Rhinelander, following that highlight there were a number of low points. Rhinelander was outscored 81-10 in its next four contests. Big opening innings were the common denominator. 

Eventual state runner-up Mosinee scored 10 times in the first of a 15-0 loss, Lakeland put up 16 in the first inning the next time out, followed by a 10-run first inning for Medford and a 15-run first for Wausau East. Rhinelander was run ruled in three innings in each of those games. 

The Hodags didn’t have another game go the distance until the April 30 rematch at Northland Pines, but feel behind 7-1 early in that game and ultimately couldn’t catch up in a 11-5 defeat. 

“I think our biggest goal is to just keep improving,” Bender said after the Pines loss. “That’s the biggest thing. We talked tonight about cheering each other on, being good teammates. Sometimes we are lacking at that. You saw the girls really come alive that last inning with two outs when we started putting runners on. No matter what, down or up, we’ve still got to be good teammates. That will help us.”

Pitching carousel

While Rhinelander had plenty of pitchers this season, none was able to replicate the production ace Addi DeMeyer had last year. 

The coaching staff figured it would be pitcher by committee over the course of the season, and that proved to be the case. None of the Hodags’ four hurlers finished the year with a ERA below 17. 

From a workload standpoint, Haenel and Winter shared the bulk of the duties for Rhinelander this spring. Haenel went 1-6 with a staff-best 17.59 ERA in 26 2/3 innings of work. Winter logged 25 2/3 innings, going 0-7 with a save and an 18.27 ERA. She led the team with 21 strikeouts. 

Winter also logged a number of innings on JV this spring, which the coaching staff credited as she received the most improved player award on for the spring.

“Sometimes we had three pitchers, sometimes we had two and sometimes we had four but for her to be versatile and go back and forth was really, really helpful,” Adamski said. 

Sophomores Nevaeh Anderson and Libbey Buchmann also split time in the circle between varsity and JV. Anderson saw 11 innings on varsity, going 0-2 with a 17.82 ERA. Buchmann pitched only three varsity innings and had a 39.67 ERA.

Statbook

While the Hodags’ offensive numbers were limited this spring due to a number of shorted games, a few players did stand out, led by freshman Chase Verbist, who hit .353 for the spring with three doubles and three RBIs. Those numbers helped her earn not only the team’s Silver Slugger award, but honorable mention on the All-Great Northern Conference team.

“She was talked about ver highly from every single coach in our conference,” Adamski said. “She might have been quite, but she was still a quiet leader. She was talked about for her hitting. Coaches noted how well she hit the ball all season long.” 

Senior Lily Treder also received recognition from the GNC as she led the team with five RBIs on the season and hit .265. Despite missing a number of games in the middle of the season due to injury, sophomore Kadyn Taylor hit .292. Junior Lucy Lindner hit .290 and tied for the team lead among qualifying players with a .405 on base percentage. 

What’s next

The Hodags lose four seniors, including a trio of starters in Treder, Haenel and first baseperson Nora Rutkowski. 

From an offensive standpoint, the Hodags return three of their top four bats in Verbist, Lindner and Taylor as well as three pitchers from this spring in Winter, Anderson and Buchmann. The team is also slated to pick up a couple of pitchers from the incoming freshman class. 

While the rebuild of the program likely won’t happen overnight, Bender said she’s hopeful that the team will be able to put in the work during the offseason to take a step forward in 2025.  

“Our big thing is just put some times together and go play in the summer,” she said. “That was our biggest thing to the girls. You still need to work on it. We need girls to work at it. We really need them to be putting in the time in the summer. We’ll always do our open gyms starting in October, like we did this last year, but that’s the biggest thing, just keep working at it and we’re going to bring multiple opportunities to the Rhinelander area.” 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].