Monsters let one slip away against Everest

It was all going to plan for the Rhinelander River Monsters Sunday against Dairyland League and WBA state runner-up Everest right up until the point when it wasn’t. The Monsters had a two-run lead in the sixth and their ace coming in out of the bullpen. 

It all went south from there on a drizzly afternoon at Stafford Field. Joe Schneider allowed eight runs in 3 2/3 innings of relief and Everest raced past Rhinelander 10-7 in Dairyland League play. 

Schneider, making his first pitching appearance of the summer for the Monsters after pitching for UW-Stevens Point this spring, came in as the rain started to pick up in the middle innings. The end result was five wild pitches, five walks and a hit batter as he struggled for command. The eight runs were only four fewer than he allowed last summer when he posted a staff-best 1.40 ERA over 57 2/3 innings. 

“What we wanted to do was get it toward the end of the game again get the balls in the hand of Joe. We had the plan and it worked until the end there,” manager Todd Johnson said. “The one hurts because I really thought once we got to the ball into Joe’s hands we were fine.”

Instead, Everest rallied to tie the game at 3 in the sixth, knotted the game up again at 5 in the seventh and blew things open with a five-run eighth inning. 

The final blow, and what proved to be the game-winner for the Merchants, was a Ryan Hubacek three-run shot to left with two out in the eighth inning. 

Martin Hoger started and pitched four scoreless innings for Rhinelander with a pair of strikeouts. Quinn Lamers worked into the sixth, before running into trouble on back-to-back doubles by Nic Barnes and Hubacek that led to the Merchants’ first run. Schneider came on in relief after that and gave up an RBI single up the middle to Matt Witter, who later tied the game, scoring on a two-out wild pitch. 

The River Monsters regained the lead in the bottom of the sixth as Sam Schneider walked, took second on an overthrown pick-off attempt, third on a wild pitch and scored when Lamers reached on an error to third. Joe Schneider added a two-out single to score Lamers and make it 7-5. 

Everest rallied right back in the seventh as Cuyler Soppe was hit by a pitch and scored on a two-out passed ball. Barnes eventually walked and, following a Hubacek single, scored on a wild pitch to tie the game again. 

Things went downhill in the eighth as Brad Anderson reached on a slow roller up the third-base line and then Soppe hit another dribble toward third that Joe Schneider misfired to first. Tanner Graham followed with a two-run double to right center to give the Merchants their first lead of the day. Then, after the Monsters could only get one out of a potential double play ball to short, Hubacek took a Schneider fastball out to left. 

“A couple of those soft infield grounders, it just seems like when things start going wrong, that’s what happens,” Johnson said.

The Monsters fell to 1-2 on the year, despite having leads of three runs or more at some point during all three of their contest. They let a 9-6 lead after six innings slip away in an 12-10 loss to Wisconsin Rapids and then held on to win 11-9 at Merrill after leading 10-2 early in that contest.

“We’ve got to figure out a way to close them out and sort of keep the pedal down offensively and continue to score some runs,” Johnson said. “There’s just a few things to iron out. Defensively, we’re fine. The pitching, you can’t say enough about the way Martin started that game. Quinn came in and threw fine. And we’re not worried about Joe. He’ll be fine as the season goes on.”

Rhinelander threatened in the bottom of the eighth as Logan Langbehn walked the first three batters to load the bases. Everest went to Witter out of the pen and he struck out Joe Schneider and Ben Quade before Jacob Dreifuerst drove in two with a bloop single down the right field line. AJ Berg struck out swinging to end the threat. Sam Schneider drew a one-out walk in the ninth but was erased when Kurt Zuiker grounded into a game-ending double play. 

    Rhinelander’s Jesse Robinson hits a home run to lead off the fourth inning of a Dairyland League baseball game against Everest at Stafford Field Sunday, May 26. It was Robinson’s second home run in three game. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

The Monsters took the lead in the second as Joe Schneider singled and scored when Everest misplayed a potential double-play ball off the bat of Josh Randolph. Jesse Robinson hit his second home run of the year, a leadoff shot in the fourth, and the Monsters went up 3-0 in the fifth as Lamers got to second on a two-base error on a bunt and scored moments later on a Senoraske single to left. 

Player/manager Tom Fish pitched an inning in the sixth to get the win for Everest. Witter got a rare five-run save as the Monsters had the tying run in the on-deck circle when he came on to pitch. 

The Monsters will venture outside league play Saturday night as they face the Tomahawk Titans in a Dairyland Large-Small crossover contest. Johnson said the team will try to iron some things out ahead of a tough two-game weekend at Everest and Whittlesey June 8-9. 

“It’s probably going to be a bullpen game for us,” he said. “We’ll try to throw everybody a couple of innings, get some good at bats and have a feel-good game and get ready for the following weekend.”

First pitch against Tomahawk has been moved up to 6 p.m. tomorrow evening.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].