River Monsters gearing up for Year 2

      

The Rhinelander River Monsters had a strong inaugural year last summer, bringing adult baseball back to the Hodag city for the first time in roughly two decades.

The Monsters went 10-6 on the year, were a couple of walk-off losses away from perhaps claiming the Dairyland League Large Division title and came within one game of qualifying for the Wisconsin Baseball Association state tournament.

Year 2 gets underway this Sunday as the Monsters host defending Dairyland Large champion and WBA state semifinalist Wisconsin Rapids at Stafford Field. Manager Todd Johnson said his squad, primarily comprised for former Rhinelander High School and Rhinelander Post 7 baseball players, knows a lot more about what it’s getting into as its second season in the wood bat league gets ready to begin.

“We had a couple of preseason meetings with the players that were around and just talked about the commitment to it,” Johnson told the River News. “Now that we’ve been through it once and we know what the postseason looks like, I think it’s going to be a pretty good core of players.”

Once he’s done with his sophomore season at UW-Stevens Point, 2022 RHS grad Joe Schneider figures to be one of the key pieces of the Monsters lineup again this summer. He shouldered the majority of the innings for the team last year, going 5-1 with a 1.40 ERA and 66 strikeouts over 57 2/3 innings of work. He also hit a team-best .375 with a pair of home runs on four RBIs.

“Obviously, Joe’s going to throw the majority of the innings. It’s just going to be a couple of instances where we have a couple of games in a week where we’re going to have to juggle things a little bit,” Johnson said.

The Monsters hoped to reunite the big three arms who carried the Rhinelander Rebels to a state legion appearance back in 2022, but Johnson noted that the availability of 2022 grad Ryan Jamison and 2021 grad Isaac Bixby will be limited, at best, due to summer work commitments. Johnson said he hoped to have to two righties available for at least a couple of games so that they would be eligible to compete in the WBA tournament come August. 

Johnson noted that 2019 grade Martin Hoger is slated to return and he saw a fair amount of work, going 1-2 with a save and a 4.55 ERA over 29 2/3 innings last summer. 2017 grad Easton Senoraske, 2015 grad Kent Matthews will also serve as other possible pitching options.

The Monsters used 27 different players last year — 28 if you count Minocqua’s Sam Johnson who was a roster addition under a provision for the WBA tournament that allows teams to pick up one player from a squad that did not qualify for postseason play. Todd Johnson said while anyone within a 30-mile radius of Stafford Field is eligible to play, he’s hopeful that the team will have more of a consistent core group of players this year week in and week out.

“The main thing is that core that we had last year,” he said. “I think there’s a stronger commitment to it this year and everyone knows what the schedule is now.”

The Monsters will likely need that in a strong Dairyland League that features Rapids as well as the Everest Merchants, who finished second in the league last year but knocked off Rapids in the WBA semifinals before dropping the state title game to Tilden. The Dairyland Large division will feature the same seven teams this year — Rhinelander, Rapids, Everest, Whittlesey, Marshfield, Minocqua and Merrill. There was plenty of parity in the league last year as the Monsters split with every team except Merrill, which it swept by scores of 8-7 and 3-1.

“There’s no givens in that league,” Johnson said. “There really is no easy games. I sort of expect the same. The division remains the same this year with the seven in the Large division. I anticipate the same as last year. Last year we beat everybody and we lost to (almost) everybody. I think every game is going to be a very tough ballgame.”

The majority of the Monsters games will take place again on Sundays this year. All but two of Rhinelander’s seven scheduled home games are slated for noon Sunday starts. The Monsters will host a game against Dairyland Small squad Tomahawk under the lights at Stafford Field Saturday, June 1. The team’s home game against Minocqua will be a 5 p.m. start June 16, following the conclusion of the annual Rebel Invite in American Legion play.

Admission is free for all home games at Stafford Field and the Hodag Diamond Club will have concessions on site. 

A couple of dates are still in flux as the season begins. Rhinelander was scheduled to open the schedule this past Sunday at Marshfield, but that game was pushed back to July 20. Additionally the team as yet to announce the date for its road contest at Minocqua and Johnson noted that the team may add the Antigo-Polar Bears from the BABA to their late-season schedule, like they did last year.

“We sort of created about a three-week void at the end of July between the last game and when the regionals start. We’re going to have to fill in a game or two in there,” Johnson said.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].

RIVER MONSTERS SCHEDULE

Day     Opponent    Time

5/12    WISCONSIN RAPIDS    Noon

5/19    at Merrill    1 p.m.

5/26    EVEREST    Noon

6/1 (Sat.)    TOMAHAWK    7 p.m.

6/8 (Sat.)    at Everest     1 p.m.

6/9     at Whittlesey     1 p.m.

6/16    MINOCQUA     5 p.m.

6/23     MARSHFIELD    Noon

6/30    at Wisconsin Rapids     1 p.m.

7/7     MERRILL    Noon

7/20 (Sat.)    at Marshfield    1:30 p.m.

7/27 (Sat.)    WHITTLESEY     Noon

TBA    at Minocqua    TBA

8/9-11    WBA Regionals*    TBA

8/16-18    WBA State*    TBA

* Based on advancement | HOME GAMES IN CAPS