River Monsters’ late rally falls short at Whittlesey

The Rhinelander River Monsters found life late on the road at Whittlesey on Sunday, but their rally was too little too late to complete an epic comeback in Dairyland League play.

The Monsters scored six times over the final two frames and got the go-ahead run to the plate before eventually falling 10-8 to the Reds.

A slow start had the Monsters down 9-0 after four innings. They were still down 10-2 heading to the eighth. Rhinelander got a run back that frame and then batted around in the ninth, hitting eight balls to or beyond the outfield grass in a furious last at-bat rally.

“I told the guys after the game just a total credit to them because it would’ve been easy just to say, ‘Hey, this isn’t our day and we’re going to lose by the run rule,’ but they just battled back,” River Monsters manager Todd Johnson said. “We got a couple and then did this furious rally late and just finished a little short.”

Tyler Blomdahl sparked the ninth-inning rally with a three-run shot to left center that also scored Martin Hoger and Jacob Dreifuerst, who had both singled to begin the inning. Two more hits by Casey Gerber and Lucas O’Brien chased Parker Lissner from the hill.

Caden Palubicki greeted reliever Spike Alexander with a fly that landed safely in shallow left center, but the Reds were able to recover and throw to third in time to force out Gerber. After Ben Quade walked to lead the bases, a similar situation happened where Senoraske hit a shallow fly that landed in the outfield. O’Brien scored, but Quade was forced out advancing second. 

“I’ve been around baseball a long time and I’ve never seen that,” Johnson said of the two outfield fielders’ choices that Whittlesey turned in the ninth. “Runners aren’t sure if they’re going to get caught or not. You’re sort of caught in no man’s land and then they drop, and then they got the force out. Had those runners advanced or went halfway and then the ball does get caught then they’re going to get doubled off you know back at the original base.”

Sam Schneider followed with an RBI single but Hoger popped up to shallow right to end the contest. 

Ultimately a few well-placed hits and a few double plays that weren’t turned cost Rhinelander in the contest as the Reds raced out to an early lead. 

Whittlesey had already scored one in the second inning on a Nick Haynes sacrifice fly when Cody Loertscher hit a hard ground ball to first with the bases loaded and one out in the inning. Dreifuerst stepped on first for an out but fired late to second in an effort to end the inning. The Reds scored a run on the play and three more moments later when Nick Meyer took O’Brien deep to left center. 

The Reds strung together five straight singles following a leadoff error in the third, including an RBI hit by Haynes and a two-run single by Loertscher that made it 8-0. Whittlesey made it 9-0 after the Monsters couldn’t turn two on a ground ball by Damon Leonard in the fourth. Leonard took second on an overthrow and scored moments later on a double by Haynes. 

Another double play that went awry gave the Reds a key insurance run in the second as Haynes scored when Senoraske’s attempt to double off Restin Kraschnewski at first sailed to the fence.

    Rhinelander’s Lucas O’Brien pitches during the fourth inning of a Dairyland Large baseball game at Whittlesey Sunday, June 15. (Matt Frey/Star News)
  

O’Brien gave up 10 runs on 13 hits over seven innings for Rhinelander, but Johnson said most of Whittlesey’s hits were simply placed where Rhinelander defenders were not. 

“It seemed like everything they hit was like a sort of seeing-eye grounder through the infield, just out of the reach of one of our fielders, or Lucas would get them down two strikes in the count and they’d hit a little blooper over the infield,” he said. “It’s just like we couldn’t catch a break.”

Offensively, Rhinelander caught a break once the Reds went to their bullpen. Nick Retterath allowed just one hit over five scoreless innings but the Monsters scored twice off Restin Kraschnewski in the sixth. O’Brien led off with a walk and scored on a two-out hit by Schneider. Senoraske also singled in the inning and came around on a wild pitch. 

The Monsters plated one more in the eighth as Palubicki doubled and scored two batters later on a ground out by Senoraske. 

Whittlesey outhit Rhinelander 14-10 in the contest. Haynes had three hits and drove in three for the Reds. Meyer, Lissner, Leonard and Brent Mueller had two hits each. Palubicki and Schneider both had two hits for Rhinelander. Hoger pitched a scoreless eighth for the Monsters, working around a single and a walk thanks in part to a double play ball.

The loss dropped Rhinelander to 2-5 at the halfway point of the Dairyland Large schedule, but near the end of its arduous first-half road trip. The Monsters play at Everest Saturday in their final road game of the season and will play their final six games at home, beginning with a contest against Marshfield at Stafford Field on Sunday. 

“We’ve got to go to Everest on Saturday, and obviously that’ll be a tough game. Then it’ll be nice to be home but it’s not like any of those games are easy at home either,” Johnson said. “Then we turn around with Marshfield on Sunday, but, it’ll just be nice to be home, finish the balance of the year at home and hopefully pick up a few wins down the road here.”

Sunday’s game against the Chaparrals at Stafford Field will begin at 1:30 p.m.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].