Hodag hardball remains undefeated with late rally at Medford

The Rhinelander High School baseball team was pushed on the road Tuesday afternoon and responded to remain undefeated on the year.

Rowan Wiczek and Conner Rappley broke open a 6-all game in the sixth with back-to-back two-out, two-run hits and the Hodags went on to beat the Medford Raiders 10-6 in Great Northern Conference play at Raider Field. 

Rhinelander (7-0, 6-0 Great Northern) led most of the way before the Raiders figured out starter Jackson Waydick and chased him from the mound in a five-run fifth. The Hodags responded with a five-spot of their own in the sixth inning to retake the lead and secure a win against one of its closest pursuers in the GNC race. 

“It was the first time this year that we’ve really been punched in the mouth like that, and that’s what we talked about right away when we came back in as far as, how are we going to respond. And we responded, obviously. the right way,” Hodag coach Joe Waksmonski said.

Charlie Johnson singled and Weston Kibler was hit by a pitch to set the stage with two outs for Gretzinger, who hit a high chopper over the pitchers mound. Shortstop Restyn Kraschnewski attempted to make a falling down, barehand throw on the play, but Gretzinger beat it out, and the throw skipped up the line, allowing Johnson to score from second to tie the game. 

Waydick was then plunked to load the bases for Wiczek, who ripped a ground-rule double to left center to make it an 8-6 game. Rappley followed with a single to right that plated Waydick and Wiczek to restore Rhinelander’s four-run margin.

“Rowan hits that double (and) ends up scoring two. It should have scored three, but somehow found a gap under the under their fence that momentarily cost us a run, but then Conner was able to pick us up with a base hit to knock in those two runs,” Waksmonski said.

The long ball was the story early in the contest, as the Hodags jacked three home runs to take a 5-1 lead. 

Kibler went yard for the first time in his career with a solo-shot to lead off the third and Vince White hit a two-run blast to right in the fourth. Both came off Restyn Kraschnewski, who started the game on the bump. Connor Anderson relieved him in the fifth. Waydick greeted him to the mound with a solo homer to left to lead off the inning that made it 5-1 Rhinelander.

“The wind was shoving out. It was blowing out for sure. Wes Kibler hitting a home run, he got all of his pitch and, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone so excited running the bases like Wes was, but it was awesome to see,” Waksmonski said. “Vince, hits a bomb. I mean, it was well struck. It was gone in any ballpark and then Jackson, he got his. I didn’t know if it was going to go out, but it just kept carrying and it went over. It’s good to see us hit with some power. We had a couple doubles in there as well, and some loud outs too. They had their outfield playing back early on as well, and we had a couple drives into the gap toward the warning track that their centerfielder made a nice play, ran down a couple balls on us.”

Rhinelander opened the scoring in the second as back-to-back singles by Sawyer Bishop and White gave the Hodags runners at the corners with one out, before the two successfully executed a double steal of home and second. Medford got a run back in the third on a two-out RBI single by AJ Guden and then strung five hits in six at bats against Waydick to start the fifth, making it 5-4 before the Hodags went to the bullpen and brought in White. 

White walked Andrew Mann to load the bases before Guden scored on a passed ball to tie the game and Broden Schilling hit a sacrifice fly to score Restyn Kraschnewski to give Medford the lead. 

    Rhinelander’s Vince White pitches during the sixth inning of a GNC baseball game at Medford Tuesday, April 28. White did not allow a hit over 2 2/3 innings of relief as the Hodags defeated the Raiders, 10-6. (Matt Frey/Star News)
  

White did not allow a hit over the final 2 2/3 innings to pick up the win. He walked four and struck out four in the relief appearance. Waydick went 4 1/3 in a no-decision, allowing six runs on nine hits with four strikeouts. 

“It ended up being around the third time through in the order. They were getting some good swings most of the day, a lot of at ‘em balls and Jackson was pitching, keeping them off balance, early on. But the third time through, it seemed like they kind of had a really good read on them,” Waksmonski said. “Then we made the change to Vince and Vince is a little more of a change of pace as far as throwing just a little bit harder and it was good to see Vince come in completely cold. He didn’t have a chance to warm up at all, and came in and threw well.”

Rhinelander outhit Medford 11-9 in the contest, with Wiczek, Bishop and White each collecting two hits. Anderson took the loss for Medford, allowing six runs on five hits over two innings of relief. 

The win kept the Hodags a game up in the GNC standings over Northland Pines, which defeated Tomahawk 6-1 on Tuesday. That was just Tomahawk’s second loss in conference play as they sit third in the GNC, tied with the Raiders. 

Rhinelander and Tomahawk began a two-game home-and-home set last night in Rhinelander and will finish the series this afternoon in Tomahawk. The venues for the two games were flipped in a decision by the schools late Wednesday morning to give Tomahawk’s field more time to drain following heavy rains late last week.

“They have been playing very good ball. Just kind of looking at that box score and what they were pitching, it looked like they were saving some of their, at least their No. 1 pitcher for us. I don’t know when exactly they’ll throw him … So we’ll see him and, they’ve been a gritty team,” Waksmonski said. “They’ve got a couple gritty victories and I know their freshman sophomore levels. They’ve got some kids who’ve been playing some travel baseball growing up, so they’ve got some good ball players coming up for sure.”

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].