Hodag baseball suffers hiccup in GNC finale

The Rhinelander High School baseball team already had the Great Northern Conference championship trophy in its possession, and had locked up the top seed for the upcoming WIAA tournament, however the Hodags ended the conference season on a sour note Thursday, May 21.

Rhinelander labored offensively, and ace pitcher Conner Rappley struggled with command as the Hodags were tripped up by Medford 2-1 at Stafford Field. 

Both Medford runs came off an erratic Rappley in the fourth inning and the Hodags, who had just three hits on the day, could only muster a single run in the sixth. Rhinelander had the tying run at third base in both the sixth and seventh innings, but was unable to push it across home plate. 

The Hodag bats were kept in check by Medford’s Will Wojcik much of the game. He allowed two hits and struck out six over 6 2/3 innings. When Rhinelander (15-2, 12-2 Great Northern) put bat on ball, it mainly led to routine fly balls into the outfield. Wojcik induced eight fly ball outs compared to only five ground ball outs in the game.

“Our message after the game was this is a game of adjustments — specifically for our hitters,” Waksmonski said. “We have to make adjustments, much better adjustments. Even in last inning, we have two fly balls, I don’t want to say lazy, I mean they’re hit, they’re fly balls, but when they’re outfield’s playing that far back, the entire game, we have to lower our sights. We have to be satisfied with hitting line drive singles. We have to be able to battle and most importantly, we can’t be getting beat with fastballs that late in the game.”

    Rhinelander’s Jaxon West flies out to lead off the seventh inning of a GNC baseball game against Medford at Stafford Field Thursday, May 21. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

Sitting at 97 pitches going into the seventh inning, the Hodags had an opportunity to chase Wojcik from the mound due to the 100-pitch maximum and force Medford to the bullpen. However, pitches 98 and 99 were first-pitch swinging flyouts by Jaxon West and Abe Gretzinger. Jackson Waydick then drew a two-out walk to finally end Wojcik’s outing. 

“We talked about it,” Waksmonski said of the rationale of taking a couple of pitches in the seventh to force Wojcik from the mound sooner. “But we also said, if you got to pitch the hit, then hit it. That’s the kind of the thing. If you’re going to get a pitch, we got to hit it. Unfortunately, we just didn’t hit the ball. And then obviously he walked Jackson and then we got to (reliever Hayden) Strebig then. It’s just a matter of if we’re getting pitches to hit, we have to start doing something with them.”

Rowan Wiczek singled to right off Strebig to give the Hodags runners at the corners with two outs, but Rappley grounded out on a chopper to third to end the game.

Rappley lasted only four innings in one of his shortest outings of the year. He worked around a bases loaded jam in the second and a two-on, one-out spot in the third, before command issues finally caught up with him in the fourth. 

He plunked Ace Arndt and Broden Schilling back-to-back to lead off the inning — two of the three batters he hit with pitches in the contest. After striking out Andrew Mann, he allowed an RBI single to Wojcik that put the Raiders on the board and then threw a wild pitch that allowed Schilling to score what proved to be the winning run. 

Rappley walked four, struck out six and allowed two hits. He was pulled prior to the fifth after 77 pitches.

“I don’t know what it was. It was just one of those nights, I think, for him,” Waksmonski said. “Not every night’s going to be a great night and, that being said, he only gave up two runs. Everyone expects such great things out of him that, obviously that wasn’t his best performance, but the same token, it’s only two runs and it’s something that, as a team, we should be able to overcome.”

Except the Hodags didn’t. Two-out rallies in the first and second proved fruitless as the Hodags stranded five runners in the frames. Wojcik then sat down 10 of 11 between the second and fifth innings before the Hodags finally made inroads in the sixth. 

Hoyt Dantoin walked and Sawyer Bishop slapped a single to left before Vince White moved them along on a sacrifice to give the Hodags runners on second and third with one out. Charlie Johnson drove in Dantoin with what appeared off the bat was going to be a soft single to right, but second baseman Ryder Kraschnewski cut off the ball at the edge of the infield dirt and threw Johnson out at first. Josh Willoughby then flew out to center to end the threat. 

Johnson pitched three innings of scoreless relief for the Hodags, allowing one hit with two walks and two strikeouts. 

The loss came on the heels of Rhinelander receiving the No. 1 seed in its half sectional for the WIAA playoffs. The Hodags will host the winner of eighth-seeded Ashland and ninth-seeded Bloomer June 2 at Stafford Field. GNC rival Northland Pines, which received the No. 4 seed, could be a potential regional final opponent June 3. Altoona received the No. 2 seed in the half-sectional, but had been previously selected as the host of the sectional semifinals and finals June 9.

“We’ve had a great regular season here. To be an undisputed conference champion, going into the seating meeting, that’s obviously really good for us,” Waksmonski said. “There wasn’t, obviously, much of a rebuttal from anyone. It was a good first season and we set ourselves up for the second season now.”

The Hodags are scheduled to have one final postseason tune-up this afternoon, slated to take on Spencer in a non-conference contest at Stafford Field.

“Spencer is going to be an opportunity for us to see some arms, some differ, at least get some of our arms ready to go for the postseason because, with that bye right there, you’re going to have some time off to work on some things,” Waksmonski said. “It’s a chance to get some bats, a chance to get some arms into the game. It’s just time to start making those little adjustments and get ourselves ready for the postseason.”

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].