Late rally not enough for Hodag baseball vs. Medford

The Rhinelander High School baseball team found offense too little too late Tuesday afternoon as it suffered its third loss in its last four games.

A two-run seventh inning wasn’t enough as the Hodags fell to Medford 5-3 at Stafford Field.

Ultimately free bases and a lack of timely hits cost Rhinelander (5-5, 2-3 Great Northern). Only one of the four runs that Jackson Waydick allowed over six innings was earned. The Rhinelander gave up another unearned run in the seventh as they committed four errors in the game. Meanwhile, the Hodag offense left the bases loaded in the fifth and sixth innings and was unable to claw into Medford’s lead. 

“We talked a little bit about at the end. You know, when your number’s called upon to make a play, we got to make the play. We just didn’t make enough plays tonight, whether it was at the plate or defensively,” Hodag coach Joe Waksmonski said.

The Raiders broke a 1-all tie in the fourth inning cashing in on a few Rhinelander mistakes. Hayden Strebig reached on a dropped third strike with one away and stole second. He later scored on a passed ball after an Evan Wilkins single got him to third. Wilkins scored two batters later on a delayed squeeze on a bunt by Sam Hierlmeier. 

Parker Lissner and Evan Czarnezki hit back-to-back two-out singles in the fifth, which led to the lone earned run allowed by Waydick. The sophomore scattered five hits, walked two and struck out five in the loss. 

“I thought Jackson pitched a great game, pitched a whale of a game. Just unfortunate, a couple situations where we didn’t secure the out and it cost us in the end,” Waksmonski said.

    Rhinelander’s Seth Nofftz fields a throw to second base on a stolen base attempt by Medford’s Sam Hierlmeier during the sixth inning of a GNC baseball game at Stafford Field Tuesday, April 29. Hierlmeier was called out after oversliding the base. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

Rhinelander’s only offense through four innings came in the second as Rowan Wiczek singled, advance to second on an error, to third on a wild pitch and came around on a groundout by Sawyer Bishop. 

The Hodags threatened in the late innings, but were unable to do anything with the bases loaded. Dylan Vanderbunt grounded out to short after a single and two walks loaded the bases with two out in the fifth. It was a similar story in the sixth, but this time Tyler Chariton grounded out to short after the Hodags loaded the bases with a walk, single and a hit batter with two gone. 

“I thought our bats they were a little bit better. We just weren’t getting the results. We had a lot of flyball outs, offensively, and that didn’t help us. We were hitting the ball pretty well, again, we just weren’t finding any of the gaps,” Waksmonski said.

Medford got an insurance run in the seventh as Ryder Kraschnewski reached on an error and came around when Lissner reached on a two-out error. Vanderbunt cut the lead to two on a little league home run in the bottom of the inning. He doubled to center, and both he and Abe Gretzinger scored when the relay throw back into the infield sailed out of play. 

That chased Strebig from the hill, though Ryder Kraschnewski came on to get Waydick and Seth Nofftz to fly out in succession to earn the save. 

Strebig scattered five hits and allowed three unearned runs with four walks and seven strikeouts over 6 1/3 innings. 

The Hodags are back in action this evening on the road at Tomahawk, looking for a season sweep of the Hatchets following a 10-3 win in Rhinelander April 23. Rhinelander will travel to Schofield to take on D.C. Everest in non-conference play on Monday. 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].