Late rally not enough for Monsters against Minocqua

The Rhinelander River Monsters found themselves down four runs on two separate occasions Sunday afternoon in Minocqua and, ultimately, ran out of time in their comeback.

Rhinelander scored twice in the ninth inning, but needed one more to extend the game as they lost to the Wood Ducks, 8-7. 

Rhinelander trailed 7-3 after five innings, and got within 7-5 in the eighth, but the Wood Ducks tacked on what proved to be a key insurance run in the bottom half of the inning and the Monsters couldn’t complete the comeback. 

“Just a couple mistakes that got us behind. and then we were playing catchup,” Rhinelander manager Todd Johnson said. “Every time we would catch up and get back within range they’d put a little distance back between us.”

Northland Pines High School baseball coach Peter Aerts hit a two-run home run for Minocqua as part of a three-RBI day. He also struck out eight over five innings of relief to earn the win. Austin Samanske drove in what proved to be the winning run in the eighth as his sacrifice fly to center plated Wally Augustyn and made it 8-5 Minocqua. 

Easton Senoraske singled followed by a Sam Schneider double in the Rhinelander ninth. Senoraske scored on a sacrifice fly by Martin Hoger and Schneider scored on a Ben Quade ground out that made it 8-7, but Tyler Blomdahl struck out for the fourth time in the game — and third time against Aerts — to end the contest. 

The Monsters got on the board first as Luke Linsmeyer drew a bases-loaded walk to force in a run in the second. Rhinelander was primed to add more in the inning but a hard line drive to short by Caden Palubicki turned into an inning-ending double play. 

“It’s just little things like that. I mean, if that line drive gets through, who knows what happens that inning,” Johnson said. 

Instead Minocqua took the lead in the bottom of the second and added to it in the third. Aerts doubled home Mason Voshell to tie the game and came around when Logan Gray-Ives reached on an error by Senoraske at short. 

Augustyn tripled to lead off the third and scored after Samanske ground into a double play. A two-out walk to Voshell set the stage for Aerts, who took a 2-2 offering from Hoger deep the left to give Minocqua a 5-1 lead. 

“Those guys can hit. We dug a hole early, you know, made some mistakes, untypical of us. We’re pretty usually pretty sound defensively, but, we threw to the wrong bases a couple times,” Johnson said. 

Rhinelander scored twice in the fourth as Palubicki drew a bases loaded walk and Quinn Lamers singled home Ben Quade, but Blomdahl was caught in a rundown between third and home on the play and retired for the final out of the inning. 

Minocqua retook a four-run lead in the fifth as two runs scored when James McCormick’s single was misplayed in center by Lamers. 

Hoger only lasted 4 2/3 innings in the loss for Rhinelander, allowing seven runs on five hits with four walks and four strikeouts. 

“They were making good contact. They’ve seen Martin several times before and, to be honest — and I think Martin would tell you the same thing — he wasn’t as sharp as he has been in a couple previous starts,” Johnson said. 

Lamers hit a two-out double that scored Palubicki in the sixth and Rhinelander tacked on one more in the eighth as Linsmeyer singled, got to second on a wild pitch and scored on a two-out single by Palubicki. 

Lamers worked 3 1/3 innings of relief for Rhinelander, allowing a run on three hits with a walk and two strikeouts. 

The Monsters continue a road-heavy first half of their schedule tonight against the Abbotsford Merchants, the new squad in the Dairyland Large after moving up from the Dairyland Small last year. Abbotsford, like Rhinelander, is off to a 1-2 start.

“We’re going through this tough stretch right now that’s going to continue Friday,” Johnson said. “We’re just playing on the road all the time. It’s tough to win on the road because you generally have the other team’s best team there. I’m sure we’ll find that out again this week. We just got to sort of hold the ship right now. And then that second half of the season, we’re basically, we’re at home every week. We just got to keep playing good ball. Things will work out.” 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].