Medford holds on at Mosinee; team one win from perfect GNC season
MEDFORD BASEBALL
With the championship clinched nearly two weeks ago, the Medford Raiders’ last goal in Great Northern Conference play is a perfect 12-0 record.
They’re one win away.
Win number 11 didn’t come easily Tuesday, but the Raiders got the job done with a 9-5 victory at Mosinee, who is at Raider Field today, Thursday, for a 5 p.m. rematch that will also serve as the annual Brain Cancer Awareness Night at the Ballpark.
Medford got up 5-0 early, but Mosinee got within 6-5 before a three-run rally in the top of the seventh finally put away the Indians. Medford improved to 16-3 overall, while Mosinee slipped to 6-4 in the GNC and 10-5 overall. The Indians were scheduled to make up a rainout against Lakeland Wednesday.
“This was a good game,” Medford head coach Justin Hraby said. “Mosinee was scrappy and worked its way back into it. They made mistakes and we capitalized on them. It was a different way of winning a game, but it was good to see that we can win games where there are a lot of runs put on the board.”
Caleb Guden, hitting out the threespot after leading off for several weeks, hit an RBI double in the first and an RBI single by Blaine Seidl was the key hit in a two-run third. Brigham Kelley led off the fourth with a hit, Tanner Hraby added a two-out hit and Guden’s double scored them both to extend the lead to 5-0.
That’s when Mosinee started to get something going offensively.
Trevor Garski walked and Drake Grod bunted for a hit to start the bottom of the fourth. With one out, Brady Hoen doubled to right-center to score both runners. He later scored on Tanner Miller’s sacrifice fly.
Aiden Gardner drove Matthew Dudei’s first pitch of the fifth inning over the fence in left-center to put Medford up 6-3, but the Indians got an RBI groundout from Sean Bryant in the fifth and Dudei’s RBI double in the sixth to put the pressure on Medford at 6-5.
“We jumped on them right away, let them off the hook a little in the first, but kept adding to our lead,” Hraby said. “We always had an answer for their scoring. Aiden Gardner’s homer in the fifth was huge. It shifted momentum back to our dugout. Our clutch hitting in the seventh was key as well.”
That last rally started with Seidl reaching on an error. He was eliminated on a Logan Baumgartner fielder’s choice, but Kelley hit a big double to put runners on second and third. An intentional walk to Nate Retterath loaded the bases for Seth Mudgett, who drove in Baumgartner with a fly ball and advanced the other runners. Tanner Hraby was clutch, delivering two big insurance runs with a base hit to clinch Medford’s first win at Mosinee in seven years.
Hraby and Guden both went three for four out of the second and third spots in the lineup and drove in five runs between the two of them. Guden had two doubles. Kelley was two for four with his last-inning double.
