Hodag baseball wins back-to-back

For the first time since 2023, the Rhinelander High School baseball team is on a winning streak. 

The Hodags won back-to-back Monday and Tuesday, with the sixth inning playing a key role in both contests. 

Rhinelander used a two-run sixth to rally past Northland Pines 7-6 Monday at Stafford Field and then blew open Tuesday’s non-conference game with a six-run sixth as they won 11-6 at Adams-Friendship.

The Hodags won just one game in 2024. Tuesday’s win marked the first time Rhinelander won in consecutive fashion since closing out the 2023 regular season with a 4-3 win over Stratford on May 23 and followed that with a 5-3 win over Antigo two days later to open the WIAA tournament. 

Not only is it the team’s first winning streak, the Hodags find themselves alone in first place in the GNC after a topsy-turvy start to the season in which every other team in the conference has already suffered at least one loss.

“I think the team is starting to come around, starting gel together,” Hodag coach Joe Waksmonski said following Tuesday’s win.

Rhinelander 7, Northland Pines 6

    Rhinelander’s Dylan Vanderbunt pitches during the sixth inning of a GNC baseball game against Northland Pines at Stafford Field Monday, April 14. Vanderbunt struck out four over 2 2/3 innings of perfect relief as the Hodags rallied past the Eagles, 7-6. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

The Hodags had the last laugh against the Eagles Monday night in a wild and windy opener at Stafford Field. 

Sawyer Bishop hit a go-ahead two-run single in the bottom of the sixth and Dylan Vanderbunt pitched 2 2/3 innings of perfect relief as Rhinelander downed Northland Pines.

Last year, the Hodags had trouble closing out close games, going 1-7 in contests in which they were either ahead, tied or trailing by only one run during the final two innings. On Monday night, the Hodags rallied on three separate occasions after Northland Pines took the lead. 

“Just the little things that maybe we weren’t making last year just, you know, we were able to get tonight and hence, we get a win,” Waksmonski said. 

The winning rally started as Rowan Wiczek reached on an error after the Eagles couldn’t handle the throw to first on a ground ball to short with one out in the inning. Wiczek got to second on the error and then to third on a wild pitch. Conner Rappley then walked and got to second on a passed ball, setting the stage for Bishop. 

After pulling a 3-1 pitch foul down the right field line, the left-handed hitting Bishop hit a line drive to right center, plating Wiczek and Rappley to put the Hodags up 7-6. 

“Sawyer’s a pull hitter and we’re looking for something that you could drive between the center fielder and right fielder,” Waksmonski said. “I thought, for a second, maybe hit it too hard because it was just a one-hopper right to the right fielder. They kind of maybe had a chance at us at the plate, but the relay kind of took a bad hop on them and we were able to get the run in.”

That was enough for Vanderbunt, a senior, to shut the door. After fanning Alex Wethington and Brody Hoeft in order to start the seventh, he induced a weak grounder to second by Matt Milanowski to end the game. 

Vanderbunt sat down eight straight and struck out four to earn the win after inheriting a two-on, one-out jam with the Hodags down 6-4 in the fifth. 

“Dylan obviously has the experience of playing baseball in the springtime up here and, obviously, the moment wasn’t too big for him. He was able to come in and throw strikes and did a whale of a job for us,” Waksmonski.

Both teams struggled at times with the conditions on a cold and blustery afternoon at Stafford Field. Northland Pines committed four errors while Rhinelander committed two and Rappley struggled with command, issuing six walks over 4 1/3 innings. The game time temperature was 42 degrees and the wind howled in excess of 30 MPH at times. Occasional bouts of mist overtook the field, but never heavy enough to stop play. 

Waksmonski said it was just typical April baseball in the Northwoods. 

“One of the messages after the game was when you’re playing baseball in northern Wisconsin, not only do you have the opponents that you’re battling, you’re also battling the elements,” he said.

Pines jumped on Rappley early as he struggled with command, walking three in the first inning. One of those came with the bases loaded. That and a wild pitch allowed Pines to take a 2-0 lead. 

Rhinelander responded in the second as Bishop singled, took second on an errant throw back to first and eventually scored on a two-out passed ball. Vanderbunt and Seth Nofftz added two-out RBI singles — bookending an eight-pitch walk drawn by Jackson Waydick — to give Rhinelander a 3-2 lead. 

Pines retook the lead in the fourth as Jason Linn reached on a two-out walk, stole second and was driven in on a double to right by Ethan Miller. Miller got to third on a passed ball and scored the go-ahead run when Griffin Beyer reached on an error to short. 

Nofftz reached on a dropped two-out fly to left center in the fourth and scored on a Rowan Wiczek base hit to tie it. Pines retook the lead in the fifth after loading the bases with nobody out. Milanowski laid down a bunt on a squeeze play to score Miller to give the Eagles a 5-4 lead. Davis Beyer then reached on an error to score Wethington and end Rappley’s night on the hill after reaching the 100-pitch limit. 

“I thought for the, most part, he did pretty well under the conditions,” Waksmonski noted. 

Rhinelander pulled within a run on the bottom of the fifth as Abe Gretzinger drew a two-out walk, stole second and scored on a flare to right by Vanderbunt — part of a three-hit, two-RBI day for the Hodag senior. 

Bishop added two hits and two RBIs as Rhinelander outhit Northland Pines 7-4. 

Rhinelander 11, Adams-Friendship 6

    Rhinelander’s Rowan Wiczek hits an RBI single during the fourth inning of a GNC baseball game against Northland Pines at Stafford Field Monday, April 14. Wiczek collated three hits and four RBIs as the Hodags won back-to-back games Monday against Northland Pines and Tuesday against Adams-Friendship. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

Waydick scattered two hits over six innings and the Hodags used a big sixth to take care of Adams-Friendship on Tuesday. 

The bats came alive for the Hodags, who pounded out 15 hits in the contest. All nine of Rhinelander’s starters recorded a hit and the Hodags strung together five consecutive base knocks in the decisive sixth inning. 

“Offensively tonight, especially to pound out 15 hits, it’s been a while since we’ve had a team that has that kind of offensive production,” Waksmonski said. “We took advantage of the mistakes they made some of the passed balls, wild pitches and the errors that they had. That’s just a sign of a good team, when you can kind of force the issue and take advantage of other teams’ mistakes.”

Leading 5-2, and after getting out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam unscathed in the bottom of the fifth, the Hodag offense went to work. 

Vanderbunt reached to start sixth inning on a dropped pop-up to third and the Hodags followed with five straight hits, including RBI singles by Nofftz, Wiczek and Rappley. Tyler Chariton was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to force in another run. Gretzinger added an RBI fielder’s choice and Nofftz, in his second at-bat of the inning, hit a sharp single past third to plate Bishop and make it 11-2.

The Hodags led wire-to-wire in the contest as Vanderbunt reached on an infield hit to start the game and scored on a two-out single by Wiczek. 

Rhinelander added to the lead in the fourth as Rappley doubled and scored on an RBI ground out by Tyler Chariton. Following an infield hit, John Turek eluded a tag in a rundown and took second after the Green Devils tried to pick him off first. Gretzinger followed with a single to right to make it 3-0.

Adams-Friendship scored twice in the fourth as Cody Hendrickson reached on an error and later scored as part of a double steal of second and home with Zak Robbins. Robbins scored a short time later when a single by Kale Gatterman was misplayed in center. 

Rhinelander got the two runs back in the top of the fifth. Waydick and Nofftz led off with singles to chase starter Calvin Seis from the mound. They scored on a groundout by Wiczek and a sacrifice fly by Rappley off Hendrickson in relief. Hendrickson was still on the mound when the Hodags started to tee off in the sixth. 

“They threw one of their guys (Seis) that probably doesn’t throw as hard as the rest of them,” Waksmonski said. “Our guys haven’t seen that type of speed yet this year, so I think we were pretty jumpy at the plate. But I think once we kind of got them knocked around a little bit then they brought in a guy that was more like to speed we see, and then the floodgates opened up.”

Waydick pitched out of his biggest spot of bother in the bottom of the fifth. A double to Seis, a walk to Danny Matson and hit-by-pitch to Hendrickson loaded the bases with one out for the middle of the Adams-Friendship order. Waydick fanned Robbins and then froze Garrett Stormoen on an 0-2 pitch to get out of the inning unscathed. Those were two of seven strikeouts for the sophomore righty, who earned his first career varsity win. 

“Jackson pitched really well, and he was working in the edge of the plates,” Waksmonski said. “I thought he had a good command of his fastball, also a good command of his curve ball. A couple got away from him a couple times. He hit a couple guys but, other than that, I mean there really wasn’t too much to complain about. I thought he pitched well.

“We got into a couple jam situations. He came back and threw a couple strikeouts when they were trying to make that comeback, got us out of that jam and then continued throwing well after that.”

Adams-Friendship tried to make things interesting in the seventh against reliever Mason Schmidt. Five straight one-out singles, an errant pick-off attempt at third and a double steal cut the lead to 11-6 before Schmidt recorded back-to-back strikeouts to end the game.

“Mason came in and I think there might’ve been one or two walks in the inning and I guess you just got to come in and be prepared for the moment — whether it’s a one-run ball game or a nine-run ball game, but I thought he closed it really well, threw his hardest and it got a couple strikeouts at the end,” Waksmonski said.

Vanderbunt, Waydick, Nofftz, Wiczek, Rappley and Bishop all recorded two hits in the game. Wiczek drove in three runs while Rappley, Chariton and Gretzinger drove in two each.

Rhinelander (3-2, 1-0) traveled to Crandon Thursday for a non-conference game that concluded after press time for today’s edition. The Hodags return home to face Tomahawk in GNC play Monday, a make-up for a game that was originally scheduled for April 8. 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].