Mosinee snaps Hodag baseball’s win streak

There will be no undefeated team in Great Northern Conference baseball play this season. 

Reigning GNC-champion Mosinee knocked off the lone remaining unbeaten in the GNC. Zach Nechuta tossed a one-hitter and a three-run first inning was enough for the Indians to get past Rhinelander 5-1 in Mosinee on Tuesday.

The Hodags (4-3, 1-1 Great Northern) had won three straight games prior to Tuesday’s loss.

Rhinelander scored its lone run in the top of the first inning but Mosinee (4-3, 4-1) responded in the bottom half of the inning and then tacked on insurance runs in the third and fifth.

Though Nechuta didn’t walk anybody, he hit five batters, including Hodag senior Dylan Vanderbunt three times. 

The first of those bean balls led to the Hodags’ lone run as Vanderbunt stole second, advanced to third on a Jackson Waydick grounder and scored when Mosinee’s throw back to third went wide. 

Mosinee’s offense quickly responded, however. After Elliot Yirkovsky reached on an error to start the bottom of the first, Mosinee strung together four straight hits — including an RBI single by Carter Fandrey and a two-run double by Treve Stoffel that made it 3-1 with nobody out in the frame.

“You kind of feel good about that start, you get a run without really any hits. You feel good about that but then right off the bat, in Mosinee fashion, the first five guys get hits,” Hodag coach Joe Waksmonski said. “Three of the five hits are pretty well-hit and then you’ve got two hits that are kind of little ground balls that go their way. Before you know it, you’re down 3-1.”

That was enough run support for Nechuta, who worked around some erraticness thanks to eight strikeouts. Conner Rappley had the Hodags’ lone hit, a one-out single in the fourth inning. He got to second on a fielding error but was left stranded there after Sawyer Bishop struck out and, two batters later, John Turek grounded into an inning-ending fielder’s choice. 

“It wasn’t anything special. He went through order two times with just a fastball and you know we had a couple hard hit balls that were right at them, but you also had a lot of balls where you know we got hit in jam shots and you didn’t hit very hard at all,” Waksmonski said of Nechuta’s outing. “We just talked about a pitcher is not going to respect you until he finds out you can hit his fastball. Once we got our first hit, then he started throwing his curveball the third time through the order. He’s got a pretty good curveball as well. Then we were kind of guessing at the end.”

Stoffel added another RBI double for Mosinee in the third and the Indians tacked on one more run in the fifth as Brady Lokken single and scored when Stoffel reached on a two-out error. 

Waydick took the loss for Rhinelander, allowing five runs, three earned, on seven hits with a walk and four strikeouts over five innings of work.

“Jackson settled in and he did a nice job of keeping their hitters off balance, keeping the fastball down and defensively, for the most part, we made most of  the plays,” Waksmonski said. “There were a couple errors here and there that lead to another run, but for the most part we played OK defense. But again once Jackson settled in, I thought he did a nice job.”

Abe Gretzinger worked a 1-2-3 inning for the Hodags in the sixth, needing only 11 pitches. Waydick was pulled after 74 pitches, making him eligible to throw again this afternoon at home against Lakeland, if necessary. 

Arms are a precious commodity for the Hodags this week, who are in the midst of playing three games in four days. Monday’s scheduled GNC game at home against Tomahawk was pushed to Wednesday due to inclement weather and concluded after press time for today’s print edition. The Hodags won that game, 10-3.

“We’ve got a conference game tomorrow night and then another conference game Friday night so we’re going need as many arms as we can here moving forward the rest of the week,” Waksmonski said.

Rhinelander’s loss moved Mosinee into the GNC lead at 4-1. Medford is now second at 2-1 in league play after rallying from down four in the last of the seventh to walk off Antigo 10-9 on Tuesday. Rhinelander, Tomahawk and Lakeland were all at .500 in GNC play entering Wednesday’ game.

“It’s kind of unfortunate that we had quite a few conference games postponed early on so now they’re going to start piling up on us here,” Waksmonski said. “It’s also one of those seasons where anyone could beat anyone out and get a night, so we have to plan our best ball on each night.”

Rhinelander’s busy stretch continues Monday with a non-conference game at Merrill before the Hodags hop back into GNC play Tuesday at home against Medford. 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].