Hodags stay hot, improve to 5-0

The calendar has yet to hit the final week of April, and it’s already looking highly likely the Great Northern Conference will see a new baseball champion this year. 

Rhinelander did its part to continue Mosinee’s free fall from the top, jumping on the defending champs for five runs over the first four innings Monday as it held on for a 5-1 victory at Stafford Field.

The Hodags improved to 4-0 in the GNC with the win and remained unbeaten overall on the year with a 9-0 win over Marathon in non-conference play on Tuesday.

The loss was already Mosinee’s third in conference play — to go along with defeats to Tomahawk and Northland Pines. 

Rhinelander, meanwhile, is looking to capitalize on Mosinee’s misfortune in a quest for its first conference title since 2012. The win kept Rhinelander tied atop the GNC standings with Medford. The Hodags finished tied for second in the GNC last year and had their Cinderella postseason run end in the regional finals at the hands of Mosinee.

“It’s always nice to beat Mosinee,” Hodags coach Joe Waksmonski said. “It is a rivalry, not just in baseball, but in a lot of sports here between Rhinelander and Mosinee. You can just tell, it just feels different, prior to the game, during the game. Definitely the energy level feels different, and it’s always really nice to come out on top.”

Jackson Waydick went five innings on the mound for the Hodags, and Conner Rappley drove in three runs in the contest. The first two helped Rhinelander build the lead in the first inning that it never relinquished. 

Rappley singled up the middle to score Abe Gretzinger and Waydick to get Rhinelander on the board. Vince White added a two-out RBI single to score Sawyer Bishop two batters later. Waydick helped his own cause with a two-out RBI double off the fence in center in the second to score Gretzinger. Rappley added a two-out double of his own in the fourth to plate Gretzinger again.

“We had some real great at bats in the beginning. Our guys got some good pitches to hit,” Waksmonski said. “In the game of baseball, two-out RBIs are so big. It builds so much momentum and it’s a great way for us to start offensively.”

Waydick meanwhile worked out of some trouble early. He stranded the bases loaded in the top of the first after getting Kaden Kolodziej to ground out. He fanned Mosinee’s lone returning first team all-conference selection from last season, Treve Stoffel, to end the second with runners at second and third. 

Four of the six hits Waydick allowed came in the fifth inning, but even then Rhinelander limited the damage. Rappley nearly turned a triple play off a Carter Fandrey line drive to third with runners at the corners. Tyler Baars barely got back to third in time, but Rappley was still able to throw across the diamond to retire Stoffel. 

Baars scored Mosinee’s lone run moments later off a two-out single by Sebastian Andersen.

Waydick walked four and struck out four to earn the victory.

“He was battling. He didn’t have his best stuff today,” Waksmonski said. “He was able to locate his fastball for the most part, but, mid-game, we sent him to the bullpen to see if we can find his curveball, and he was able to find it and use it for his last two innings, and looked really good, kept him off balance. You got to give them credit too. They, they’re a good hitting ball club and they finally got around to them a little bit.”

White pitched the final two innings for the Hodags, allowing a hit with one strikeout. Stoffel hit a one-out single off White in the seventh, but was thrown out in a game-ending double play after taking an overzealous jump on a pop fly shagged by Gretzinger at short. 

“Defensively, we had a couple real nice plays,” Waksmonski said. “You know, we had a nice double play from the line drive to Conner and throw out the runner on the other side here. Even here at the end we make the play and then we’re able to throw out the runner at the end.”

    Rhinelander’s Vince White tracks down a fly ball in center field during the fourth inning of a GNC baseball game against Mosinee at Stafford Field Monday, April 20. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

Rhinelander outhit Mosinee 8-7 in the contest. Rappley and White had two hits each for the Hodags. 

The Hodags had to make a last-minute substitution in the lineup as outfielder Hoyt Dantoin sustained an injury in pregame warmups and was scratched from the lineup. Junior Weston Kibler started in his place and recorded a single in the second inning.

Later, freshman Blake Bauer made his varsity debut — entering the game in right field in the sixth. As baseball fate would have it, Mosinee’s first two outs of the inning were flyouts to right.

Waksmonski said Bauer was getting ready to play the JV contest about a mile down the road at RHS Monday afternoon when he, literally, got called up to varsity. 

“We just had the unfortunate injury pregame, I made the phone call over to the JV field and asked if Blake has his varsity stuff, and sure enough, he did,” Waksmonski explained. “I said, ‘All right, just send him over.’  We got him in a spot where, with the pitching change, we were able to get him into the outfield. And, sure enough, I believe he had three flyball outs, and then he had a single hit right in front of him as well. We’re joking with Rowan Wiczek, because he’s normally our right fielder, and I don’t think he had that many balls hit to him all year so far, and Blake comes out, and he handled like a pro. We’ve always been confident in him and his defensive ability out in the outfield. So we were very comfortable having him out there.”

Rhinelander 9, Marathon 0

Charlie Johnson impressed in his first varsity spring start on the mound and the Hodag bats finally gave him some run support late as Rhinelander defeated Marathon on the road Tuesday.

Johnson scattered four hits in a complete-game effort, with four strikeouts and no walks. The junior pitched 11 innings last summer at the Legion level without allowing an earned run and carried that form into the spring.

“It was just Charlie coming in and throwing strikes. According to the book, his strike percentage was at like 68%, which is a season high for any of our pitchers. We preach all the time, you pound the zone and let our defense work,” Waksmonski said.

Scoreless going to the sixth inning, the Hodags finally got to Marathon flame-thrower Charlie Ehlert the third time through the order. 

Gretzinger singled, stole second and came around on a single by Waydick as the Hodags finally broke the seal. Rappley scored Waydick on a single two batters later and Johnson helped his own cause with a two-out, bases-clearing double that gave the Hodags a 5-0 lead. 

Rhinelander continued the success against reliever Ean Shuda in the seventh. Five straight batters reached with two out, capped by a three-run double from Bishop and an RBI single by White.

“We were finally able to really grind out some at bats and, and get runners in a scoring position, and then we had a couple clutch hits,” Waksmonski said. 

Marathon never really threatened against Johnson, getting only one runner into scoring position the entire night. Blake McCain hit a two-out double off Johnson in the second, but Johnson froze Ehlert to end the threat.

“The umpire did have a big strike zone and Charlie was able to work that to his advantage for sure,” Waksmonski said. “They have a very good hitting team. You could tell some of the stuff that they were doing that they were taught to do with two strikes — choke up on the bat, try and put the ball on play. They were doing that and our defense was able to make some make some plays.” 

Busy stretch

The Hodags traveled to Lakeland Thursday in a game that concluded after press time for today’s edition and is now scheduled to play four times this coming week.

Rhinelander will host Crandon in non-conference play at Stafford Field Monday, April 27 before three key mid-season GNC contests. Rhinelander will play at fellow GNC unbeaten Medford the following day before a home-and-home set with 3-1 Tomahawk April 30 and May 1. The April 30 game in Tomahawk is the make-up of a contest that has already been postponed twice due to inclement weather. 

“We are going to be playing a lot of baseball,” Waksmonski said. “The tough part is then you do have very limited time to kind of work on stuff and really kind of hone in some certain things. We just really have to talk a lot about certain situations and hopefully, even without reps and practice, guys can take that and put it into play the next game.” 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].