Hodag baseball splits GNC games against Tomahawk, Lakeland

The any given night nature of this Great Northern Conference baseball season was on full display for the RHS baseball team late last week in a pair of games that were about as disparate as the conditions in which they were played. 

The Hodag offense was hot on a 70-degree day Wednesday, pounding out 16 hits in a 10-3 victory over Tomahawk at Stafford Field. Two days later, as the thermometer struggled into the lower 40s, the Hodags managed only four hits and were shut out by Lakeland 4-0.

Rhinelander (5-4, 2-2 Great Northern) sits tied for third in the GNC as a result in a conference full of parity. Not even to the halfway point of the league schedule, everyone in the conference except for league-leading Mosinee has at least two losses.

Rhinelander 10, Tomahawk 3

The hit parade began for the Hodags in the middle innings Wednesday. The Hodags scored all 10 of their runs, and collected 15 of their 16 hits, between innings 3-6 in a seven-run rout of the Hatchets at Stafford Field. 

The floodgates flung open for Rhinelander the second time through the order against Hatchet senior Brayden Larson. The Hodags strung together five runs on seven hits in the third to break open a scoreless tie and cruised the rest of the way. 

“Once we kind of cracked the seal, we just kept going,” Hodag coach Joe Waksmonski said. “The nice thing about that particular inning was everything was earned. There were no walks, there were no errors. I mean, it was five runs, I believe on seven hits. It was definitely nice to see our offense produce like that.”

The Hodags got multiple hits from five of the top six in their batting order. Seth Nofftz, Rowan Wiczek and Sawyer Bishop had three hits and two RBIs each, while Dylan Vanderbunt and Jackson Waydick each had two hits. 

Waydick got the rally going in the third with a leadoff opposite-field triple to right and scored on a base hit by Nofftz. Bishop, Tyler Chariton, Abe Gretzinger and Vanderbunt added RBI singles as the Hodags batted around in the inning. 

Bishop added a two-out RBI single in the fourth to score Nofftz, who reached on a misplayed flyable to center to begin the inning. Wiczek added a two-run single with two outs in the fifth before Conner Rappley scored him on a base hit to left. Rhinelander tacked on one more in the sixth as Vanderbunt singled and scored on a sacrifice fly by Nofftz. 

In all, eight of the nine players in the Hodags’ batting order contributed hits to the cause and seven drove in at least one run.

“I feel like that’s going to be our calling card this year,” Waksmonski said. “We’ve got a fairly deep batting order where guys are very competitive in their at bats and they’re able to sting the ball. A couple of guys can bop a couple into the gap. It’s definitely nice to see and it’s nice to have.”

That was more than enough run support for Vanderbunt, who scattered five hits and struck out six in six innings of work. The lone run off of him came in the fourth on a two-out double by Cash Olsen followed by an RBI single by Brody Hilgendorf. Vanderbunt walked three of the next four batters he faced but settled back in to retire six of his final seven batters.

“Dylan threw well. He kind of ran into a little bit of a hiccup there in the fourth and he just made us a self-adjustment on the mound with his arm slot and he was able to correct himself,” Waksmonski said. “I know he kind of had a couple of walks there, a bout of wildness, and then afterward, he was able to continue throwing strikes and pitched really well today.”

Gretzinger closed the game on the mound and struggled a little with command after getting the first two outs of the inning. Three walks, and error and a hit batsman allowed Tomahawk to score two runs before Gretzinger put out the fire and struck out Nathan Norman looking to end the game.

Lakeland 4, Rhinelander 0

    Rhinelander’s Conner Rappley fields a throw to third as Lakeland’s Ashton Bremer attempts to steal a base during a GNC baseball game at Stafford Field Friday, April 25. Bremer stole four bases against Rhinelander as the T-Birds won, 4-0. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

Lakeland slowly chipped away at Rhinelander on Friday, with single runs in the first, second, fifth and sixth innings, as it inched away to a shutout win.

Ashton Bremer stole four bases and scored twice for Lakeland while Ben Peterson struck out 10 over six innings of four-hit ball.

“I thought basically the story was two guys — Ben Peterson and Ashton Bremer. I felt like those two guys single-handedly beat us today,” Waksmonski said.

Bremer scored Lakeland’s runs in each of the first two innings. He walked and stole second in the first before scoring on a two-out base hit by Drew Warren that went up the line and bounced off third base. Bremer reached on a fielders’ choice before stealing second and third with two out in the second, allowing him to score when Merick Trotter had an infield single deep to the hole at shortstop. 

“Bremer with the way he got on base and ran the bases. I believe he had three or four stolen bases. He’s always a threat to run and that’s something we talked about before the game. He’s going to run and he’s still did it,” Waksmonski said.

Mistakes gave Lakeland their two other runs. With runners at second and third and two outs Rappley made an errant pick-off attempt to third, allowing Peterson to score. Max Keuer scored from second in the sixth inning after a soft single by Bremer was mishandled by Vanderbunt in shallow center field.

Rhinelander gave up 12 free bases in the contest via eight walks, a hit batter and three errors.

“They threw more strikes than we did and played better defense. They didn’t have any errors defensively. They played a good ball game in these conditions tonight,” Waksmonski said.

While Rhinelander had traffic in every inning except the fifth, the Hodags were unable to get a run off Peterson and went 0-for-5 in the game with runners in scoring position.

Rhinelander’s best threat came on a two-out rally in the sixth as singles by Rappley and Bishop and a walk by Chariton loaded the bases for John Turek who went down swinging on a 1-2 pitch in the dirt. He was the final of Peterson’s 10 strikeout victims.

“Peterson, with the way he threw on the mound … (he) was able to just pound the zone, throw strikes, mix and match speeds,” Waksmonski said. “Then when we did get base runners, he did a nice job of keeping our base runners close and controlling our running game in that regard.”

Bishop had two of Rhinelander’s four hits in the game. Gretzinger added a lead-off single in the third.

Rappley took the loss, allowing four runs, two earned, on six hits with four walks and three strikeouts over 5 1/3 innings. Waydick struck out Jack Stella and Trotter in the sixth as the Hodags got out of that inning without any further damage. Mason Schmidt walked the bases loaded in the seventh, but got Keuer to strike out looking to keep Lakeland off the board.

The Hodags were slated to take on Merrill on the road in non-conference play Monday and will jump back into GNC play this afternoon at home against Medford. 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].