Snowhawks win inaugural matchup with Fricken Restaurants

The Lake Tomahawk snowshoe baseball team stayed in a rhythm with another wire-to-wire win on Monday.

The Snowhawks defeated Fricken Restaurants 18-6 in the inaugural matchup.

“They’re new, and I really wasn’t sure who they had last year, but it was a pleasure to see,” player/coach Jeff Smith said. “He had a really nice team. I thought it was a great time. Those guys could hit the ball as I recognized some of the players from other teams, but I think he put together a pretty good squad.”

The first four batters all reached and scored for the Snowhawks in the bottom of the first inning. 

Smith was out with an injury. Even so, his teammates picked him up with another solid offensive performance.

“There’s enough guys behind me,” Smith said. “I have all the confidence in the world that if a couple of us are missing that the guys behind us will pick us up. It just depends if they’re on that night, and I know last week everybody was hitting the ball all over the place, and it was a good night last night. We had a few hits that were right to guys, but it’s easy trying to stay away from that but in a game like that it really doesn’t matter too much because the guys still were able to be fast on the ‘shoes and they got across the plate, and that’s what we’re looking for. We strive to be pretty fast on ‘shoes so we can always get to second base we’re in scoring position.”

Fricken Restaurants, led by Bill Fricke, scored four runs in the top of the third inning to make it a close game.

Dan Biertzer hit an RBI single to left for their first run of the game. Anthony Caroselli and Michael Frederick also had RBI hits to make it a one-run game.

The Snowhawks led 5-4 going to the bottom of the third inning.

Lake Tomahawk ran away with it after that, outscoring Fricke’s team 13-2.

“They just had trouble putting runs across the plate,” Smith said. “That’s the whole thing. They gotta get used to snowshoes a little bit, but overall, I think the crowd really was into it, and it was a fun night overall, it really was.”

Following a Gunner Dunbar triple in the third inning, Martin Jaramillo hit an RBI single. Billy Kuckahn extended the inning with an RBI groundout.

The next five batters all reached base to give the Snowhawks the maximum five runs.

Biertzer produced again, this time with a two-run single in the top of the fourth. The Snowhawks still led 10-6.

Both teams gave the crowd plenty to cheer for, even if it was a trip on the base paths.

“There was some legitimate falls that happened that really weren’t supposed to by guys who really been on shoes for a while, and it happens,” Smith said. “The crowd seems to always laugh about that. It was fun, beautiful night. It was a big crowd, too, seemed to be a real nice crowd.”

Dunbar gave the crowd something to cheer for with a home run to right field. His blast made it an 11-6 game. Nick Merckx also scored a run with his hit.

Don Moore scored three runs on Monday. He came home to score on a couple of errors when Cole Punches put the ball in play.

Next, Jesse Robinson delivered an inside-the-park home run. The Snowhawks were blowing the game open.

Late in the game, the Lakeland Gymnastics Club put on a show in-between innings.

“It’s a little break in the action, and it shows what program is going on at the high school, and if we can highlight something like that for the fans and then make aware of what they have going on there,” Smith said. “Often times things at the high school aren’t really noticed especially with the little kids, and so it’s nice to showcase what they have going on, and it’s the building blocks of those girls getting into gymnastics in high school. It’s great that they have a really good program going there right now. Lots of girls in there, and this was just a very small inkling of what they actually have.”

The Snowhawks (6-2) have won four games in a row. Their next big test comes up next week with the Rhinelander-based Bucketheads/Dazzle’s Demons, led by the Snowhawks’ own Jesse Robinson.

“He puts together a really good group of guys that can hit the ball all over the place,” Smith said. “He’s got some lefties that can put it over the fence just like Gunner so they’re a threat to both sides of the field and not only that, they’re really good hitters up the middle. We are going to have our hands full, and we have to hit.”

The rivalry renews on Monday, Aug. 18 at 7:30 p.m. in Lake Tomahawk.

“We have to be hitting on all cylinders ourselves just to match their hits, and maybe we can be a little more faster on ‘shoes, but we need to get guys on base,” Smith said. “He comes prepared, and it’s been a rivalry for … I don’t know 15 years, probably close to that. It’s quite a few years that they’ve been playing.”

Brett LaBore may be reached at [email protected] or [email protected].