Monsters drop two at home

It was a tough weekend at home for the Rhinelander River Monsters in Dairyland League play. First, the Monsters couldn’t keep up with the offensive pace set by league-leading Wisconsin Rapids, dropping a makeup game to the Red Hawks 11-3 on Saturday. Then, on Sunday, the Monsters, ran out of gas six outs from the finish line. They surrendered a three-run lead in the eighth inning before eventually falling to Abbotsford in extra innings, 8-6. 

Rhinelander officially moved to 5-8 on the season with the losses. The Dairyland League did finally this past weekend credit the Monsters with a forfeit win over the other game of a June 29 doubleheader against Wisconsin Rapids that was not made up after Rapids did not have enough players to field a team on the originally-scheduled day. 

Still the losses put Rhinelander in a tie for sixth in the Dairyland Large — and fifth out of the six Division A teams in the league. That leaves the Monsters’ Wisconsin Baseball Association playoff status in jeopardy heading into this Sunday’s finale at home against Whittlesey.

“It almost feels like we’ve just been snake bit a bit here lately,” Rhinelander manager Todd Johnson said as his team dropped its third straight contest on Sunday. “Just, at some point, something goes wrong, we make a mistake. They do something offensively. It would just be nice to get a win and you know, get those good feelings going again, because it’s been a little bit of a tough stretch here.”

Wisconsin Rapids 11, Rhinelander 3

Payton Nelson hit two home runs and Wisconsin Rapids used a five-run sixth inning to blow things open against the River Monsters on Saturday. 

Rapids pounded out 11 hits in the game and seven of their final eight runs came via the long ball.

“The Payton Nelson home run show, I’ve seen that plenty before,” Johnson said. “I mean, they can hit. We kept them off balance for a while. Overall, we played well. We certainly had our opportunities to put on more runs than we did.”

Rhinelander led early in the game, taking a 1-0 advantage in the first when Ben Quade drew a bases loaded walk with two outs in the inning. The Monsters could have perhaps done more damage in the inning with a little luck. Just prior to Quade, Tyler Blomdahl laced a line drive right at shortstop Nathan Krommenakker and, after Quade, Tyler Henkel flew out on a well-hit ball to right center to end the inning. 

“If we could have, you put up three, four runs there, that might have been a little different deal,” Johnson said. 

Rapids tied the game in the fourth as Andrew Chapman’s two-out base hit scored Krommenakker. The Redhawks took the lead in the fifth at Brennan Huber led off with a double and scored from third when the ball caromed off Nelson and into the outfield on a stolen base attempt. Nelson took third on the play and scored on a Kam Oliver groundout. 

After Dylan Cunningham walked, Chapman took Henkel deep to left-center, ending the Hodag alum’s pitching debut for the River Monsters. 

Henkel, a class of 2009 grad who served as part of the RHS coaching staff this spring, went 5 1/3 innings allowing five runs on five hits with five walks and no strikeouts. 

“Tyler was a college pitcher. He certainly knows how to pitch and, with coaching the spring, he was throwing a lot,” Johnson said. “But, yeah, I don’t think we envisioned him going (that long) but, he said he was fine. That last inning, he said ‘If I walk a guy, come get me,’ and then he said he was OK, and then the home run. But, he threw fine.”

Huber singled and Caden Sengbusch drew a walk with two outs in the fifth before Nelson took reliever Quinn Lamers deep for a three-run shot to left. Nelson would hit another off Lamers — this time a two-run blast — in the eighth. That came after a Sengbusch RBI single and accounted for the final margin. 

Rhinelander got back within 8-3 in the sixth, stringing together three of their seven hits on the day. Sam Schneider doubled, Blomdahl singled and Quade hit an RBI double by before Gavin Scheurer hit a sacrifice fly. Rhinelander managed to get only one more runner in scoring position the rest of the way against Trent Van Ess, who allowed three runs on seven hits with four walks and five strikeouts in a complete-game effort. 

“Things sort of stagnated. I mean, the one thing I talked to the guys about after the game was when they’re ahead in the count, there were several instances in the game where we didn’t get good swings,” Johnson said. “Where you’re almost not swinging with conviction and you’re popping up and stuff like that. On a 2-0 count, 3-1 count that shouldn’t be happening.”

Abbotsford 8, Rhinelander 6

    Rhinelander’s Martin Hoger reacts after scoring the tying run in the ninth inning of a Dairyland League baseball game against Abbotsford at Stafford Field Sunday, July 20. The River Monsters would fall to the Merchants in 10 innings, 8-6. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

The bottom dropped out on the River Monsters in the eighth inning on Sunday. Leading 5-2, the Monsters gave up four in that inning, including a go-ahead three-run triple by Tanner Hraby, as Abbotsford rallied from behind for an 8-6 win. 

Rhinelander tied it on a two-out RBI single by Jacob Dreifuerst in the bottom of the ninth inning, but Abbotsford scored twice in the 10th and the Monsters went down in order to end the contest. 

“That one was one of the toughest losses I’ve been a part of,” Johnson said. “Too many chances, some base running mistakes we shouldn’t be making. Guys know that. But yeah, just a tremendously tough loss today.”

It ended up being the Tanner Hraby show for the Merchants. He went 3-for-6 at the plate, struck out seven over 6 1/3 innings of relief and made a couple of key pickoff plays that quashed Rhinelander rallies in the fifth and sixth innings. 

“We knew that going in. He’s a good ball player,” Johnson said. “I followed him this spring when he was at (UW-) River Falls and, as a freshman, had a great season for River Falls. And we saw him earlier this year, too. He’s a good player. There’s no doubt about it, but, I mean, we had ample chances to win this game.”

Rhinelander survived some shoddy defense to maintain a three-run lead in the seventh inning. Tanner Hraby reached when Easton Senoraske bobbled a ground ball to short and advanced to second when Senoraske’s tardy throw to first sailed well off line. After a walk to Blake Jacobi, Mateo Lopez reached on a grounder to second that Quade couldn’t handle — loading the bases with two out. 

Martin Hoger got Payton Schreiber to fly out to left to end the threat, but the 16 extra pitches he needed to get through the inning seemed to take their toll in the eight. Hoger loaded the bases, giving up a single to Dakota Ellenbecker in between walks by Blake Bartender and Ty Peterson. Aaron Morrow then lined an 0-2 pitch up the middle for a run to make it 5-3 and end Hoger’s day at 114 pitches. 

“You know, Martin’s always going to give you 100%. There’s no doubt about that. And he doesn’t want to come out, but, you could tell that probably wore him down to try to get through that inning,” Johnson said.

Sam Schneider came on and got Judd Hraby to ground into a fielder’s choice that retired Ellenbecker at the plate, but Tanner Hraby followed with a gapper to right center that cleared the bases and gave the Merchants the lead. 

Hoger singled in the ninth to start Rhinelander’s tying rally with one out. He moved to second on a Quade groundout and scored on Dreifuerst’s two-out single to right. 

Abbotsford used small ball to regain the lead in the 10th. Morrow bunted his way on and moved inherited runner Ty Peterson over to third before Judd Hraby laid down a sacrifice bunt to put Abbotsford ahead. Morrow advanced to third on a pitch in the dirt and scored on an over throw from behind the plate by Blomdahl that made it an 8-6 game and changed the Monsters’ approach going to the bottom of the inning. 

“Once they scored two, that changes our game plan in the bottom of the inning,” Johnson said. “I mean, you really can’t bunt then at that time and give away outs. They did what they had to do and then at that point, we just needed base hits and unfortunately, we didn’t get them.”

Tanner Hraby sat down the top of Rhinelander’s lineup in order. Strikeouts by Caden Palubicki and Senoraske book-ended a weak pop out in foul territory by Lamers.

Tanner Hraby got Abbotsford on the board in the first inning with a leadoff hit. He stole second, advanced to third on an error and scored on a wild pitch. Morrow added an RBI single for Abbotsford with two out in the fourth. 

Rhinelander took the lead with two runs in the third. Owen Kurtz hit an RBI single to score Hoger and then worked a double steal of second and home with Scheurer to put the Monsters up 2-1. Senoraske led off the third with a sign and scored on an RBI groundout by Hoger. Rhinelander added two more in the fourth as Kurtz reached on an infield hit and scored when Lamers reached on an error. Palubicki singled and scored on a passed ball. 

The Monsters had runners at the corners with two out in the fourth after Blomdahl was hit by a pitch and the Merchants went to their bullpen. Tanner Hraby struck out Schneider looking — one of five inning-ending strikeouts for the Monsters in the contest. 

Whittlesey ahead

The Monsters close out the regular season against Whittlesey after falling to the Reds 10-8 on the road back in June. Rhinelander scored six times in a furious ninth-inning rally before falling short. First pitch is slated for 1:30 Sunday at Stafford Field.

With Merrill (4-8) just a half-game behind Rhinelander, and up to five Dairyland League Large teams projected to make the WBA’s Division A playoffs — both Whittlesey and Abbotsford are Division B squads — Rhinelander may have to down Whittlesey at home to make the postseason, like it did a season ago. 

The WBA will select the playoff field and announce seeds and regional pairings following its meeting July 29.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].