Hodag baseball undone by mistakes, missed opportunities again

TOMAHAWK — It is no stretch to say that with a few more timely hits and fewer untimely mistakes — or even just a little more old-fashioned good luck — the Rhinelander High School baseball team would have far more than one win as it enters the final days of the regular season.

It’s been a Murphy’s Law kind of year for the Hodags. Things went wrong again Friday as Rhinelander missed on early chances to blow the game open and then allowed Tomahawk to claw back and win 3-2 at Kahle Field.

The Hatchets took the lead for good in a two-run fifth. The tying run scored moments after pitcher Max Ratty couldn’t haul in a foul pop-up on the third-base line by Brody Hilgendorf, who then doubled to left center on the very next pitch to score Brayden Larson. 

The Hatchets later had runners at first and third following a Cooper Hetzel infield hit. Hilgendorf scored what proved to be the winning run after catcher Chandler Servent sailed a throw into right field, trying to keep Hetzel honest at first.

“We seem to find different ways to bite ourselves in the butt, so to speak,” Hodag coach Joe Waksmonski said. “It’s easy to point out throwing the ball away to score the third run, but we had multiple chances with runners in scoring position. If we just put the ball in play one time and we score a run. Other times we had second and third or bases loaded and we’re striking out or popping up or whatever the case may be.”

Rhinelander had plenty of chances to score more than two runs in the first four innings. Seth Nofftz led off the game with a double and scored after Ethan Ihn dropped a throw to first on a ground ball by Dylan Vanderbunt. Vanderbunt tried to scramble to second as the ball got away in foul territory, but Ihn recovered in time to throw out the Hodag junior.

“The first inning especially, we hit three hard balls,” Waksmonski said. “Two times they make good plays on a ball and then they had an overthrow that allowed us to score a run, but their first baseman threw an absolute dime to get our runner at second base. That would have been another run as there were a couple of hits after that.”

Rowan Wiczek was left stranded for Rhinelander after a one-out double in the second. The Hodags got two aboard after back-to-back one-out hits by Vanderbunt and Kaden Vanney in the third, but Adrian Patrone struck out looking and Max Ratty grounded into a fielder’s choice to end that threat. 

Tomahawk tied it in the bottom of the third as Walter Horabik doubled and scored on a one-out single by Hilgendorf. 

The Hodags retook the lead in the top of the fourth as Owen Kurtz singled and came around after back-to-back errors by the Hatchets allowed Wiczek to get to second and James Heck to get to first with nobody out. Tyler Chariton bunted the two along, but Nofftz popped out to second and Vanderbunt flew out to right to end the threat. 

Rhinelander had a chance to regain the lead in the sixth after Chariton walked and Nofftz singled with two out. A wild pitch allowed both runners to advance into scoring position, but Vanderbunt struck out swinging to end the threat and the Hodags went down in order in the seventh. 

Ihn pitched three innings of one-hit ball in relief for Tomahawk, striking out four, to get the win after Hetzel scattered two runs on six hits over the first four innings. 

“I don’t know if it was because he was a lefty or what,” Waksmonski said when asked how Ihn kept his hitters off-balance. “That seems to be the case when we see a left-handed pitcher, everything goes out the window and we feel we have to change a lot and we really don’t have to. He didn’t throw any harder or any softer. He was mostly the same speed as Hetzel but, again, he threw strikes.”

Ratty allowed three runs on eight hits and struck out six in the loss. Though Ratty walked only one batter, Tomahawk took him deep in the count on a number of occasions as he reached the daily 100-pitch maximum when he struck out Grant Albrecht to end the fifth.

“They’re not afraid with two strikes in the box at all,” Waksmonski said. “They’re relaxed and they fought off a lot of real good pitches and really strung together some really good at-bats. Everyone through the lineup was able to do that. That’s kind of what happens, as a team when you’re able to do that, you’re able to run up a pitcher’s pitch count.”

Vanderbunt worked a 1-2-3 inning in relief for the Hodags in the sixth. 

Rhinelander (1-18, 1-11 Great Northern) was, weather permitting, scheduled to travel to Ashland Monday to take on the Oredockers in what will be a WIAA playoff preview. The Hodags received the No. 13 seed in their D2 regional late last week and will travel up to Ashland again Thursday to start the postseason.

“I’m kind of happy to go up to Ashland and see what they have,” Waksmonski said. “I was looking at their roster, they only have one senior. They’re a fairly young team. It will be kind of interesting to see exactly what they have. They had a good record up there in their conference but it will be nice to see what they have.”

The Hodags are scheduled to close out the regular season this afternoon at home against Marathon.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].