White’s 10 Ks, Bishop’s sac fly lead Rebels past Antigo

ANTIGO — Last Wednesday’s rematch between Rhinelander Post 7 and Antigo Post 3 was a far different contest than the first outing between the teams, but the end result proved to be the same. 

Vince White struck out 10 batters over six scoreless innings and Sawyer Bishop’s sixth-inning sacrifice fly proved to be the difference as the Rebels defeated the Typhoon 2-0 in American Legion play at Kretz Bros. Park.

Rhinelander improved to 2-2 on the summer with the win and swept the regular season series from Antigo. The teams could possibly meet again later this summer in Class AA regional play. Tournament pairings have not yet been announced. 

“It’s always nice to get a sweep over anybody. It always seems to be just a little sweeter when it’s against Antigo, but, you know, it’s nice to get any wins,” Rebels manager Dan Huhnstock said.

The teams had combined for 22 runs a week earlier when the Rebels opened the season with 16-6 win over the Typhoon in Rhinelander on June 11. This time around Rhinelander mustered only two hits, but took advantage when Antigo starter Marcus Washatko finally opened the door in the sixth inning. 

    Rhinelander’s Sawyer Bishop hits a sacrifice fly to right field during the sixth inning of an American Legion baseball game at Antigo Wednesday, June 18. Two runs scored on the play thanks to a subsequent Antigo throwing error and Rhinelander went on to win, 2-0. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

Rowan Wiczek started what proved to be the winning rally with a line drive base hit to left with one out in the sixth. White and Conner Rappley drew walks behind him to load the bases, and Bishop drove the first pitch he saw to the warning track in right field. That was plenty deep enough to score Wiczek from third on the sacrifice, but the play turned into two runs when Antigo attempted to throw out White advancing to third and the ball sailed into foul territory, allowing White to come in for a key insurance run. 

“We took advantage. (Washatko) put a couple runners on and we were able to get a couple runs off of Sawyer’s big flyout sac fly,” Huhnstock said. 

That was enough run support for White as the Typhoon had a difficult time making contact off the sophomore-to-be righty. None of Antigo’s three hits left the infield and White retired eight straight at one point between the third and fifth innings.

Antigo had two aboard with one out in the first following an infield hit by Parker Chaney and a walk to Levi Binversie, but White fanned Kaden Novak and froze Scott Hagerty to get out of the inning unscathed. Antigo’s only other real threat against him came in the sixth when Chaney led off with a walk and moved to third on a pair of groundouts. White got Hagerty to whiff on a 2-2 offering to get out of the jam with his 10th and final strikeout of the night.

“You can’t say enough about him. He’s really maturing into a very nice pitcher,” Huhnstock said. “I’m just really looking forward to what he does down the stretch and in the future, because he’s got a lot of poise out there.”

    Rhinelander’s Charlie Johnson fields a ground ball during the fifth inning of an American Legion baseball game at Antigo Wednesday, June 18. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

White sat at 93 pitches after six innings — 12 below the American Legion daily limit of 105 — but Huhnstock called in junior-to-be Charlie Johnson to nail down the save. Johnson responded with his second scoreless relief appearance of the summer. He worked around a one-out walk to Jack Sundermeyer by getting Jordy Pregler to ground into a fielder’s choice before striking out Owen Medo to end the contest. 

“I wanted to start the inning fresh with somebody rather than just pull them in during the middle of the inning. That’s always been my best option,” Huhnstock said. “We’ve seen Charlie pitch a lot on the JV level over the last couple of years, and he’s a very capable pitcher.”

That decision nearly backfired as a hard line drive by Seth Medo to start the seventh inning hit Johnson just below the abdomen. Johnson recovered in time to throw out Medo at first but needed a couple of minutes to collect himself before the game resumed.

Luckily the Rebels dodged a bullet as another injury is something the team could ill-afford. The Rebels were already thin on Wednesday with normal starters Dylan Vanderbunt, Seth Nofftz and Abe Gretzinger out of the lineup. The team needed to call up a pair of Babe Ruth players — Parker McCone and Hoyt Dantoin — to fill out the roster for the contest. McCone played third and went 0-for-3 at the plate. Dantoin played in right and was hit for in the lineup by Rappley. 

“Them Babe Ruth guys are ball players. They might not have a lot of experience at this level, but they are good ball players. So I have no problem with having them in the lineup,” Huhnstock said.

Washatko took the loss for Antigo, allowing just one earned run on two hits with four walks and four strikeouts over six innings. 

The Rebels fell at Wittenberg 4-2 on Friday night and were scheduled to host Kingsford on Monday. Reports from those contests will be published in this coming Friday’s edition of the River News. 

Rhinelander will host Minocqua at Stafford Field Wednesday before heading to Merrill for the Art Perkins Memorial Tournament this coming Friday, Saturday and Sunday. 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].