Legion team off to good start in abbreviated season

MEDFORD POST 147 LEGION

S The Medford Post 147 American Legion baseball team is off and running with its abbreviated 2021 schedule having won three of four games thus far in Great Northern Legion Conference play as well as rallying for an exciting nonconference win over Merrill.

Through a week and a half, Medford is 4-2 overall and 3-1 in the GNLC, which is playing a quick single round-robin schedule before holding a three-round tournament that starts Monday, July 12.

Medford is tied with Rhinelander atop the six-team conference, but the two teams will not be able to face off in the round-robin portion of the schedule. They were going to meet Friday at the Merrill tournament, but Medford had to withdraw from the tournament due to a lack of players.

Medford was scheduled to play two five-inning non-conference games at Chequamegon Wednesday.

Medford 9-5, Minocqua 0-7

On Monday, Medford rode a three-hit shutout by pitcher Logan Baumgartner to an easy 9-0 win over the visiting Minocqua 89ers in the seven-inning conference game at Jaycee Field. Minocqua rallied from an early 4-0 deficit to take the non-conference, five-inning nightcap 7-5.

In the main game, Baumgartner struck out seven and walked only one as Minocqua put multiple runners on base in only one inning, the top of the sixth. By that time, the outcome had basically been decided.

Medford got all the runs it would need in a three-run second inning. Max Dietzman legged out a one-out infield single. With two outs, Steve Hraby and Colby Elsner drew walks from Minocqua lefty Zach Peterson and left-handed hitting Seth Mudgett dropped a two-run single to the opposite field. Elsner alertly scored on a wild pitch.

A six-run fifth broke it wide open. Mudgett singled and advanced on a wild pitch. Tanner Hraby walked. Baumgartner and Aiden Gardner hit run-scoring singles. Courtesy runner Miles Searles scored on an errant throw on a bouncer hit to the right side by Brigham Kelley. After Dietzman walked, Braxton Weissmiller greeted reliever Will Fortier with an RBI single. Steve Hraby drove in one with a groundout and Mudgett drove in the final run with an infield single.

Mudgett was three for four with three runs batted in. Baumgartner and Weissmiller had two hits apiece.

“Logan pitched another great game,” head coach Justin Hraby said. “That is two starts in a row where he went the distance and did not give up an earned run. Seth had a big game at the plate, collecting three hits and driving in three runs. Logan and Braxton also hit well and were a huge part of our offensive success.”

Medford appeared to be headed toward a doubleheader sweep. Searles and Tucker Kraemer singled to start the bottom of the first in game two and Mudgett doubled to centerfield to knock in Searles. Kraemer scored on Baumgartner’s groundout and Mudgett scored on a wild pitch by Fortier to make it 3-0.

Medford tacked on an unearned run in the second.

But things changed in the top of the third when Minocqua loaded the bases with no outs. A one-out wild pitch by Kraemer scored Alex Fortier and Josh Wagendorf’s groundout scored Eric Albertus. Two more runs scored on errors to tie it.

Kelley’s sacrifice fly gave Medford a 5-4 lead in the bottom half, but Albertus put Minocqua ahead in the fourth with a two-run triple and Peterson added an RBI groundout.

Medford threatened by putting two runners on with two outs in the fifth, but a pop-up ended it.

Kraemer had two of Medford’s six hits and scored twice. He pitched the first three innings, striking out five and walking five. Steve Hraby walked two, struck out one and allowed three runs and three hits in two innings of work.

Medford 9, Tomahawk 0

Mudgett pitched a complete-game four-hitter Thursday as Medford shut out host Tomahawk 9-0 in conference play. He struck out six and walked three while only needing 88 pitches to finish the shutout.

“Seth pitched a great game,” coach Hraby said. “He did a great job of mixing early and often. He made one mistake all night, otherwise he was spot on. We hit the ball well enough to win. They made a lot of mistakes and gave us a lot of free bases. We took advantage of that.”

Medford scored two runs without a hit in the first and then upped its lead to 6-0 in the third. With two down, Tanner Hraby singled and moved to second on an errant pickoff throw. Baumgartner knocked him in with a base hit. Gardner walked, Kelley was hit by a pitch and Dietzman delivered a two-run single. An errant throw on a double steal allowed Kelley to score.

Kraemer hit an RBI single and Steve Hraby scored on a wild pitch in the fourth. Weissmiller singled in Gardner in the seventh.

Weissmiller had two of Medford’s eight hits off Tomahawk pitchers Isaiah Scheffler and Blake Felser, who combined to strike out one hitter and walk five.

Medford 9, Merrill 8

On June 30, Medford won a game of big innings with a little bit of small ball in the ninth and outlasted visiting Merrill 9-8.

Merrill scored five runs in the second to build a 6-0 lead, Medford scored eight in the sixth to grab the lead, but Merrill answered with two in the seventh to send the game to extra innings.

In the bottom of the ninth, Baumgartner singled and scooted all the way to third when no one covered the base on Gardner’s sacrifice bunt. With two down, the left-handed hitting Dietzman beat out an infield bouncer hit deep into the hole at short to drive in the winning run.

Game two of the doubleheader was halted while tied at 2-2 after an inning and a half by a brief but drenching downpour.

Peyton Becker led off the game with a solo home run to right for Merrill and Caleb DeJong added a two-run bomb in the second to cap that big inning for the visitors.

Medford did very little against Merrill pitcher Zach Kriegel until the sixth. Mudgett was hit by a pitch. Tanner Hraby made Merrill pay for not catching a foul pop-up behind the plate by doubling. An errant throw gave him a two-run “Little League home run.” Baumgartner ripped a double off the leftfield fence, Gardner singled and Kelley singled in Baumgartner.

Reliever Connor Cortright walked Dietzman to load the bases and then threw a wild pitch to score Baumgartner. Steve Hraby’s two-run single tied it. Parker Crass put down a sacrifice bunt and one out later, Tanner Hraby drove in the go-ahead run with an infield hit. A wild pitch scored the eighth run of the inning.

Merrill got a single by Bradyn Pieper and a double from Becker to start the top of the seventh. Tanner Hraby relieved Kelley, who had gone the distance for Medford to that point. He got two outs but also threw a wild pitch that allowed a run to score. Kriegel’s two-out single tied it.

Mudgett pitched the ninth, working around two walks, and got credit for the win. Gardner made a big play, gunning down Becker as he tried to steal second after hitting a leadoff single. Baumgartner, Tanner Hraby and Steve Hraby, who had a third-inning double, had two hits apiece. Weissmiller added a double.

Mosinee 3, Medford 2

On June 28, Medford’s defense caved in the bottom of the seventh, turning a potential 2-0 win at Mosinee into a 3-2 loss.

Medford had an uncharacteristic five errors in the loss. Baumgartner went the distance for Post 147 in the loss and recorded nine strikeouts while not allowing six hits and no earned runs in 6.1 innings. He also had a hit and drove in a run offensively.

Mudgett had two of Medford’s four hits. Post 147 scored single runs in the third and fifth innings to take its 2-0 lead.

Medford 2, Northwoods 0

Four days after the high school season ended, Medford opened its Legion season on June 26 with a 2-0 home win over the Northwoods squad from Eagle River.

Mudgett pitched six innings and Kelley pitched the final inning in the threehit shutout. Mudgett struck out two and Kelley fanned one. Elsner’s hit in the bottom of the fourth drove in both runs. Medford had just four hits against Northwoods pitcher Sam Johnson.

A second game that day was halted early by rain.

Medford second baseman Tucker Kraemer cleanly fields a ground ball hit by Minocqua’s Will Fortier during the second inning of the Legion team’s 9-0 win Monday.MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS