Dazzle’s Demons gets early lead, hang on to snap Snowhawks’ win streak

In one of the biggest rivalries of the season, one Snowhawk switched sides and put together a team good enough to beat the locals.

Rhinelander-based Bucketheads/Dazzle’s Demons beat the Snowhawks 20-16 on rainy and misty Monday night in Lake Tomahawk.

Dazzle’s Demons feature Snowhawk, and Hodag alum, Jesse Robinson. Every year he goes to the opposite bench and assembles a squad to challenge the Snowhawks.

“I think they had a really good ball club they put together there,” player-coach Jeff Smith said. “Jesse always does, and I knew we were gonna have to outhit them to win, and that’s all it takes, and unfortunately we didn’t. It was a good game, there was a lot of nice defensive plays for a ball that was slipperier than all heck. I think both sides did a pretty good job of handling that ball in those conditions, and they hit a lot of balls into the gap that rolled through and got those extra-base hits, and that just put them in position to score. They hit the heck out of the ball, and it was a good game though.”

The rivalry between Dazzle’s and the Snowhawks goes way back.

“The team between us and Dazzle’s has been a rivalry now, I guess you could call it, because it was (Jesse’s) dad’s team, you know, 15 years ago, 20 years ago,” Smith said. “Them kids were young then, they were 15-16-years old. They have a lot of fun playing here, and that’s what’s important that we have a team that comes up and plays.”

Dazzle’s Demons ended up snapping Lake Tomahawk’s four-game win streak. 

“This is a game that (Jesse) is really pumped up about,” Smith said. “This is a team that his dad used to have, and so I think he’s trying to carry on that tradition of keeping his dad’s team going, but I think the wins for him are really important, at least for him and his bunch of guys that he has. There’s a lot importance on it, and I don’t know if they get upset if they lose, but we used to beat them up pretty good back in the day, but these kids have all grown up now so they’re pretty used to snowshoes. They play softball all the time, and they know how to play the game. If his team can beat the Snowhawks, I think that’s kind of like the icing on the cake for him if he beat his team.”

Dazzle’s started with a five-run first inning. Tyler Henkel got the runs started with an RBI single. A rare RBI walk drawn by Benny Ives scored a run. Then it was Logan Ice, with a ground-rule double, scoring two runs. Eric Hasselberger put the final touches on the inning with an RBI single.

    Dazzle’s Demons Kody Sievert runs to third base in the fourth inning against the Snowhawks Monday, Aug. 18 at Snowshoe Park in Lake Tomahawk. (Brett LaBore/Lakeland Times)
  

“They’re all in that same age group — late 20s, early 30s — and they can run pretty good on those ‘shoes,” Smith said. “They’re all really good athletes, all athletes from high school so they’re just a really good hitting ball club, every one of them it seems like and pretty good in the outfield, too, even though there were some errors. That’s gonna be expected on a wet night, but they seemed to handle it real well for a team that doesn’t play every week.”

The Snowhawks played catch-up for the majority of the game. They started to get close in the bottom of the third inning.

Nick Pitterle walked, and Smith singled to left. Two batters later, Don Moore hit an RBI single to left. 

Moore’s hit set up a big blast by Dunbar. He hit a home run to deep right-center field. His three-run shot gave the Snowhawks their first lead of the game at 7-6.

“I thought we put together a pretty good squad ourself,” Smith said. “We had all almost all of our guys back so we had more guys than anticipated, and so I think we batted 14, which is a lot. We don’t hand pick our team. We come to play, and if everybody shows up they’re all gonna play, and we all change up our positions, and we’re not that way where we have to have a win. I’m trying to get these younger guys in. If they show up to play, and I don’t play them then I probably won’t have them the next time. It was good.”

The lead didn’t last long. Dazzle’s Demons gained the upper hand again with a two-run hit by Nate Schmidt in the fourth. He scored Andy Van Dyke and Tommy Ziemba and put Dazzle’s up 8-7. 

Who else but Robinson to deliver a big hit. He hit an inside-the-park home run to left-center field. He used his speed to easily get around all four bases. Dazzle’s led 10-7.

The Snowhawks came back again, this time in the bottom of the fourth inning. Nick Merckx and Martin Jaramillo both had hits. Billy Kuckahn reached base with a run scoring on an error. 

Then, Pitterle produced an RBI groundout. Smith tied the game at 10 apiece with an RBI double.

“We were all pretty serious at that point,” Smith said. “I mean we came back. We were keeping them, first of all, to a respectable run level, and that was the main thing — to keep them guys under 20 or 18 (runs). I wanted to keep them under 15 really.”

The momentum switched back to Dazzle’s in the top of the fifth inning. Ian Miller hit a two-run single, deflected by shortstop Derek Young. Two more runs scored on a fielder’s choice by Ziemba. Schmidt delivered an RBI double for the maximum five runs in the inning.

“Five runs is kind of demoralizing in a way, but we were still up, keeping good faith on it,” Smith said. “We really thought we were gonna come back. We weren’t getting too down about it at that point. I mean, but it’s definitely a little dent in the plan on what we wanted to do. You don’t want a team to get five runs like that, to rattle them off so fast especially … after two outs they get a bunch of runs after two. That was tough.”

Dazzle’s increased their lead to 20-13 after the top of the seventh inning. Highlights of the inning came with RBI hits from Miller, Kody Sievert, Schmidt and Robinson.

The Snowhawks made one more effort to complete the comeback. They scored three runs in the bottom of the eighth inning.

Marc Seils, Brady Bruhl and Jacob Hodges all scored runs to put the Snowhawks within four runs at 20-16.

Up next, the Snowhawks (6-3) conclude the summer with a game against WPS Local 420. The game begins at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 25 in Lake Tomahawk.

“They’re gonna come with a good team,” Smith said. “I know most of those guys on there. They’ve been playing us for years so they’re not new to the game of snowshoe baseball, that’s for sure. I would expect a pretty good game. It’s a good game for the end of the year, should be a lot of people there.”

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