Team review: RHS softball

Following a 1-15 campaign in 2024, there wasn’t much direction for the Rhinelander High School softball team could go but up. The Hodags did make some strides this year, going 5-16 overall, but improvement was a struggle due to factors well outside the team’s control.

The Hodags endured the temporary loss of one of their primary facilities, the Hodag Dome, for virtually the entire season. They dealt with a compacted schedule with multiple rainouts and had to do it all with a young roster that included only one senior by season’s end. 

“We had so many different curveballs thrown at us as far as the dome collapsing, crazy schedule with all the weather we’ve had. We didn’t get a lot of home games. We also had to battle adversity of people quitting, and just coming together as a team and having such a young team with only one senior, I’m just super proud of them,” coach Ali Bender said after the team fell to Waupaca in the opening round of the WIAA tournament. 

The Hodags did earn one more win in the Great Northern Conference than they did a year ago and showed several other bright moments during the season — including a 1-0 loss to eventual state qualifier Lakeland. 

While Rhinelander didn’t get back to the top half of the GNC, as Bender hoped going into the season, she said 2025 could be considered as a significant step in that direction for the program.

“We have now changed our culture,” she said. “We had fun this year. It wasn’t hard to come to practice. It wasn’t hard to come to games. We cheered each other on. We encouraged each other. There are things that we need to work on as a program, but overall, just the culture this year and our attitudes have changed a lot.”

Here are five storylines from the recently completed season.

Dome ordeal

The Hodags came out of the gates strong with a 15-5 victory over Phillips in their season opener March 29 at the Hodag Dome. 

Little did they know they were less than 24 hours from having most of their season completely turned upside down. 

The dome received significant damage the next morning when a backup generator failed to deploy following a power outage caused by an ice storm. That caused the facility to be closed for two months for repairs. The Hodags had a fair bit of equipment buried underneath the dome when it deflated and, moreover, lost their place to host early-season practices and games. 

The team made due practicing inside the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium until the snow melted, but the loss of the dome served as a double whammy. It was an insurance policy that allowed the Hodags to get play games in the event of inclement weather and/or poor field conditions. Not having that contingency plan led to games getting postponed and a back-loaded schedule that saw the Hodags play nine games between May 1 and May 12.

“At this point we have to make up games as soon as we can,” Bender said after a May 1 doubleheader against Tomahawk was partially rained out. “Next week we have a packed schedule. Basically, Monday through Saturday next week with one day off, so again we can’t really afford to keep pushing games back.”

Glimmers of hope

Though the Hodags took some lumps early in Great Northern Conference play, there were some glimmers of hope that appeared throughout the season. 

Rhinelander’s second win of the year was perhaps its best, as it rallied past Three Lakes 15-10 on the road. The Bluejays made it to the sectional finals in Division 5 before bowing out to eventual state finalist Almond-Bancroft.

The Hodags rallied from down 4-0 to knock off another Northern Lakes foe, Crandon, 6-4 on the road. Bender said afterward she was proud of how the team responded following a slow start. 

“We came out really flat-footed. I brought all the girls in and I said, ‘Girls we’re going make a change now or we’re not. I said we came here to play. Let’s give them a ball game. This is a game that we can win. Let’s win inning by inning,’” she said. “After that it just seemed like every single inning, we just got more confidence and we got a better attitude and we gained more confidence.”

Rhinelander threw in a couple of victories over Northland Pines and had a few other quality, competitive losses. After losing to Lakeland 18-0 in its first meeting, the Hodags made it a 1-0 game the second time around against ace pitcher Saylor Timmerman. After losing 13-4 the first go-around against Tomahawk, Rhinelander forced extra innings in the rematch before falling 8-5. 

Fresh faces

With limited numbers, Rhinelander’s freshman class was pressed into duty almost immediately for the squad and, overall, accounted itself well during the season. 

The Hodags had four freshmen — Aleece Johnson, Kendall Vanney, Kalyn Miller and Saige Mutter — in the starting lineup during its playoff game against Waupaca. That was by far the most of any class as Rhinelander started two sophomores, two juniors and only one senior in the game. 

Not only did the freshmen play, they were put into significant roles. Johnson and Vanney handled more than 90% of the innings in the circle for the Hodags. Johnson went 3-9 with an 8.73 ERA and 62 strikeouts over 51 1/3 innings while Vanney was 2-7 with a 10.73 ERA and 40 strikeouts over 45 2/3 innings. Vanney was called upon to pitch the bulk of the innings during the second half of the season.

At the plate Vanney was Rhinelander’s top hitter on the season, going .302 with nine extra base hits and 15 RBIs. Miller was third on the team among players with at least 30 plate appearances, hitting .227 with a double and eight RBIs as she worked her way into the lineup as an outfielder. Mutter hit the team’s lone home run and drove in four on the season while serving as the team’s primary catcher. Johnson added eight RBIs and served as Rhinelander’s leadoff hitter much of the season.

“We are very, very blessed to have a group of freshmen that are so dedicated, and they just care,” Bender said during the team’s banquet. “I don’t know how else to put that, but all of these girls earned a spot, right? They earned a spot by being a great teammate. They earned a spot on the field. They made a difference this year. And that’s the biggest thing that I want to say. They were extremely coachable. They’re dedicated, they hustle. Things that you don’t have to remind them or you don’t have to keep preaching to them. They just do it. You guys definitely brought that competitive atmosphere. You guys want win.”

Statbook

During the team’s banquet Bender highlighted a number of metrics that showed how much the Hodags improved from 2024. Most noteworthy was the fact that the team played 15 regulation games this year without losing via the run-rule, compared to only three a season ago. 

The Hodags had a staff ERA of 9.62 this season and recorded 118 strikeouts. Those were marked improvements from an 18.89 ERA and 38 strikeouts a season ago. 

Rhinelander also had a pair of honorees on the All-Great Northern Conference team — with Johnson and Vanney both receiving honorable mention. 

Ultimately, the Hodags were still limited on offense, striking out 126 times and hitting .194 collectively. Vanney, Miller and Cassidy Lindner (.235) were the only players on the team who had at least 30 plate appearances and hit above .200. That ultimately hindered the Hodags’ comeback chances in a 4-2 playoff loss at Waupaca.

“The difference in the game tonight was they hit and we didn’t,” Bender said. “We didn’t have strikeouts, but we had little bloopers, very soft hits back to shortstop, second base. We didn’t have a lot of hard hits.”

What’s next

The good news for the Hodags is that virtually all of this year’s squad should return intact. The only loss to graduation will be senior third baseperson Lucy Lindner. 

The bad news for the Hodags is that the GNC will not lose a ton of talent going into 2026. Only three members of the all-conference first team were seniors and only nine seniors overall received all-conference recognition. That plus the addition of a traditionally-strong softball program in Merrill to the GNC fold will make moving up the conference pecking order a tough task for the Hodags. 

Bender said that’s an effort the team must begin this summer.

“If we want to start competing and we want to win more games, we have to put in the effort to offseason,” she said. “Not just OK now season ended today, which is May 22, and I’m not gonna pick up a ball until March 16 of next year when season starts again. That’s what kind of our program has been. We lack that, you know, that hard intense commitment, and so we talked about ways that we can, you know, be committed this summer.” 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at jeremy@rivernewsonline.com.