Raiders win in extras, but Rice Lake ends the ride
WIAA DIV. 2 BASEBALL
The Medford Raiders earned one thrilling victory in Tuesday’s WIAA Division 2 Rice Lake sectional baseball tournament.
Unfortunately, teams need two of those victories to get where they really want to go.
The Raiders’ record-setting 2021 season ended with a 7-4 loss to the host Warriors in the sectional championship game that started badly and got better in the middle innings.
But Rice Lake (14-10) got two big runs in the top of the sixth to slam the door on Medford’s comeback efforts and clinch the school’s first state tournament berth since 1982.
Medford’s run at its first state trip since 2006 ended at 24-4.
“What a great season,” Medford head coach Justin Hraby said. “So many huge accomplishments both as a team and as individuals. I am so proud of what these guys have done. What a great ride. The seven seniors will be missed. What a great group of kids who would give anything to see their team be successful.”
Medford survived a semifinal scare early Tuesday afternoon, fighting off two tying rallies in the late innings to finally defeat underdog Sparta 7-6 in eight innings, while Rice Lake pulled away from Osceola (17-4) and won 9-1 in its morning semifinal.
While Medford got some bad breaks in the bottom of the first inning, the defeat in the championship ultimately came down to mistakes that allowed the Warriors to add to the three runs they got in the top of the first.
“They took advantage of our mistakes and we let them off the hook on theirs,” Hraby said.
Rice Lake likely wouldn’t have scored in the first had it not been for a fateful bounce. The Warriors had runners on first and second with one out when clean-up hitter Joe Kroeger hit a ground ball toward shortstop Caleb Guden that looked to be the start of a tailor-made inning-ending double play. But the ball took an inexplicable high hop to drive in a run. Matthew Juza followed with a fly ball that rightfielder Nate Retterath lost in the sun and fell for an RBI single and Alex Belongia hit a sacrifice fly to right to put Medford in a three-run hole before the Raiders got their first at-bat.
“That first inning was tough,” Hraby said. “A routine double play ball bounces over Chubs’ head. That gets out of the inning 0-0. Then a sun ball that got us and a sac fly and all of a sudden it was 3-0.”
Medford got two runners on in the bottom half, but Rice Lake starter Christian Lindow got Aiden Gardner to ground out for the third out. Medford starter Spike Alexander, who picked up the relief win in game one, used up his available pitches for the day by working out of a jam in the second to keep it 3-0.
The Raiders got to the hard-throwing Lindow in the bottom of the third, starting with a bloop single to right by Retterath, the number-nine hitter in Medford’s order. Seth Mudgett walked. Both runners moved up on Tanner Hraby’s groundout to first. Retterath scored on a wild pitch and Guden singled to rightcenter to drive in Mudgett and make it a 3-2 game. The inning ended with Lindow striking out Blaine Seidl with the bases loaded.
“Our guys hung in there the whole game,” Justin Hraby said. “3-0 seemed like 6-0 to start, then we got something going thanks to Logan and Nate getting on.”
Rice Lake got the two runs right back in the top of the fourth, loading the bases with no outs with a Parker Kastner single and Raider reliever Logan Baumgartner hitting two straight batters. Baumgartner gave himself a chance to get out of it by striking out Graydon Clark, but the Warriors’ standout catcher Nolan Rowe singled through the left side to drive in a pair, with the second runner, Cole Fenske, barely beating the relay throw from Guden at home plate.
Medford responded in the bottom half, but wasn’t as fortunate on a game-changing play at the plate.
Baumgartner started the inning by doubling down the leftfield line and courtesy runner Nate Doriot scored on Retterath’s double to the gap in right-center. Retterath snuck to third on a throw to the plate and scored on Mudgett’s infield single, which chased Lindow from the mound. He was replaced by freshman hurler Easton Stone.
The Warriors got a break when Mudgett was doubled off first on Tanner Hraby’s popped-up bunt attempt, but Guden was grazed by a pitch to keep the inning going. Alexander then hit a rocket to deep left-center for extra bases. Justin Hraby waved Guden around third, but the relay throw from shortstop Zack Fisher was right on the money to nail Guden at the plate for the third out.
Medford loaded the bases in the fifth on two dropped third strikes and a walk, but Smith got Mudgett to ground out.
“We had some opportunities,” coach Hraby said. “They made a perfect relay on a ball in the gap that got Chubs on a really close play at the plate. Spike had the big hit and two perfect throws just got (Guden). If I had that opportunity 10 times, I’d send Chubs 10 times.”
The nail in the coffin in the sixth came with two outs in the top of the sixth. With Fenske on second, Rowe singled to right. Retterath’s throw to home plate was offline as Fenske scored. Gardner’s throw to try to get Rowe at second was off the mark as well and Rowe came all the way home for the “Little League home run.”
In the three innings before that, Medford’s defense had tightened up.
“Our defense made some plays that got us in the dugout,” Hraby said. “We turned a handful of double plays up the middle and Blaine, Spike and Nate chased a lot of balls down in the outfield.” Rice Lake turned a double play to get out of the sixth and, after Seidl hit a twoout single in the seventh, Clark was in the right spot to catch Baumgartner’s deep drive to center and end it.
Alexander was three for four to lead Medford’s offense. Retterath was two for three. Medford had nine hits but struck out eight times, uncharacteristic for a team that averages only punchouts per game. Stone got credit for the relief win, going four scoreless innings, while allowing three hits and two walks and striking out three.
Baumgartner covered the last five innings for Medford, allowing six hits and four runs, three of which were earned. He struck out one. Rowe was a handful out of the three-spot in Rice Lake’s order, going three for three with two runs scored and three driven in.
Medford 7, Sparta 6
Coming in at 8-13 and 0-12 this season in the Mississippi Valley Conference, Sparta was the underdog of the day but the Spartans made Medford work hard for its semifinal win, which was clinched when Doriot scored from second base on a throwing error with one out in the bottom of the eighth.
“Wow, what a great game,” Hraby said. “Sparta was scrappy and did a good job of putting the ball in play against our pitching. You can tell that they were battle-tested playing in the MVC. They ran our pitch totals up and really made our guys work.”
The Raiders got out of bases-loaded jams in each of the first two innings and built a quick 4-0 lead. In the first, Guden induced a double-play ball from Tye Klass that went right to Baumgartner, the shortstop, at the second-base bag, who easily completed the inningending twin killing. The Raiders then pounced on Sparta’s left-handed starter Brett Stuessel with a single by Hraby, a double to deep center by Guden, an RBI single from Alexander and a two-run single up the middle by Gardner. Stuessel ended the inning with two strikeouts, but Medford tacked on a fourth run in the second on Hraby’s sacrifice fly that drove in Baumgartner, who had doubled to deep left to start the inning.
“The first inning was what we needed,” Justin Hraby said. “A big double play to get out of bases loaded no one out jam, then a big three-spot, aided by some big hits by Tanner, Chubs, Spike and Aiden.”
Stuessel and Sparta’s defense settled down after that and the Spartans’ offense started to chip away. Stuessel’s RBI single got Sparta on the board in the top of the fourth.
In the sixth, number-nine hitter Ryne Brueggeman led off with an infield single –– one of five infield singles Sparta hit in the game –– and Stuessel walked. Guden hit his 100-pitch limit and Baumgartner took over. He lasted just 11 pitches as Chris Jacobs walked, Hayden Brueggeman drove in a run with a groundout and Nick Kent hit an RBI single. Alexander took over and the first batter he faced, Klass, hit a run-scoring bouncer to tie it at 4-4.
Medford’s bats finally woke back up in the bottom half as Gardner reached on an error and was bunted to second by Brigham Kelley. Seidl singled and Baumgartner followed with a tie-breaking sacrifice fly to center. Retterath singled to right to score Seidl for a 6-4 lead.
Sparta came right back with a single by Colby Barry, a walk to Aidan Sprague, a sacrifice bunt by Ryne Brueggeman, an infield RBI single from Stuessel and a squeeze bunt from Jacobs.
Medford loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, but Klass, who took over for Stuessel after he went 6.1 innings, got Baumgartner to bounce into a fielder’s choice. Alexander quickly set the Spartans down in order in the top of the eighth, giving Medford a chance to walk it off in the bottom half. Retterath started the inning with a single. Doriot pinch run and was bunted to second by Mudgett. Hraby hit a chopper to Hayden Brueggeman at third and his throw to first sailed high past his first baseman, allowing Doriot to easily score. Alexander threw 44 pitches and got the win. In 2.2 innings, he allowed a hit, two runs and a walk while striking out two. Guden allowed 11 hits, three runs and three walks while striking out six in five innings.
Mudgett was three for four out of the leadoff spot, while Gardner and Retterath were two for four. Stuessel allowed 10 hits, six runs, four of which were earned and one walk while striking out seven.
Emotions hit the other end of the spectrum in the WIAA Division 2 sectional final Tuesday as Nate Retterath flips his helmet in disgust while the Rice Lake fans celebrate in the background after the Warriors clinched a trip to state with their 7-4 win.MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS
Medford catcher Aiden Gardner puts down the tag, but Rice Lake’s Cole Fenske is ruled safe on a close play at the plate, giving the Warriors a 5-2 lead in Tuesday’s sectional final.MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS
Medford’s Blaine Seidl rounds third and sprints home, scoring from second on Nate Retterath’s single in the sixth inning of Tuesday’s 7-6 win over Sparta.MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS
Nate Doriot
