BACK IN THE RACE WITH 6-0 WEEK

MEDFORD SOFTBALL

Run includes two no-hitters from Miller

The Medford Raiders played over half their Great Northern Conference softball season in a week’s time and, depending on Wednesday’s outcome, may have put themselves in a solid position to get a conference championship repeat.

Six straight league wins vaulted Medford to 7-1 in the GNC heading into Wednesday’s showdown at 5-1 Antigo, the team that beat the Raiders early in the season. The last two came Tuesday in a 10-0 and 13-3 doubleheader sweep over Northland Pines on the Raiders’ home field.

Martha Miller threw her second nohitter of the week in game one and the offense jumped ahead 10-1 in game two, giving the Raiders plenty of cushion to work with. Both games lasted just five innings.

“We just have to take care of business (Wednesday),” head coach Virgil Berndt said. “That’s the big one.”

Wednesday’s game took place after the deadline for this week’s issue of The Star News.

Only one Northland Pines batter reached in game one against Miller. That was Madison Stebbeds, who hit a high pop-up on the infield that went off of Miller’s glove for an error after she and first baseman Katie Brehm got too close together.

“That was tough, but it happens,” Miller said of losing the shortened perfect game on the play.

The junior, however, certainly was happy with how things went otherwise as she racked up 12 strikeouts and three ground ball outs to shortstop Allie Paulson in the no-hitter.

“It’s pretty cool,” she said. “I’m kinda getting in the groove again. It’s nice being able to play these games consistently and not be like once a week or every two weeks, playing in 30-degree weather. It really helps when the team can put up runs behind you. It makes you feel good as a pitcher.”

Putting the ball in play and putting pressure on the defense was key Tuesday and through the 6-0 week. An errant throw on a dropped third strike led to a first-inning run in game one. In the second inning, Madisyn Pilgrim ripped a leadoff double to left-center off starting pitcher Savannah Satterburg and scored on Morgan Huegli’s single up the middle. An errant throw on Miller’s sacrifice bunt brought in a run as did a wild pitch.

Brehm doubled and then scooted home on errant throw back to the infield to start the third. Pilgrim singled and scored on a line drive double by Milou Van den Boogard, who started at catcher in place of the injured Eryka Seidl. Pines dropped Miller’s fly ball to left to bring in a run, Laurissa Klapatauskas singled in two and Rynn Ruesch’s double drove in the 10th run.

Medford finished with nine hits from eight different players. Pilgrim was two for two.

“Definitely our bats are getting going compared to the beginning of the season,” Miller said. “It’s really nice to jack up some runs.”

“We got a few bunts down too, so that helped a bit,” Berndt said.

Playing as the visitors in game two, Medford jumped ahead quick with singles by Miller, Paulson and Klapatauskas driving in the first run and Ruesch then clearing the bases with a three-run home run to left-center off Pines starter Aubrey Beyer. Miller struck out the side

Medford’s Martha Miller unleashes a pitch during the first inning of the Raiders’ 10-0 win over Tomahawk. Miller struck out nine in a five-inning no-hitter.

in the first and then Klapatauskas took over in the second in the circle. Pines touched her for a run on a Beyer double and a Kelty Neff single. But the Raiders more than offset that with three runs in each of the next two innings. Huegli and Miller hit RBI singles in the third and Paulson added an RBI triple. Huegli hit a two-run single and Jada Surek hit a runscoring fielder’s choice in the fourth.

Pines had its big moment of the day in the bottom of the fourth when Carly Huelskamp and Tommie Springer hit booming back-to-back solo home runs to make it 10-3. But Medford again quickly countered in the top of the fifth, getting a two-run single from Brehm and a runscoring groundout from Katie Lybert.

Medford banged out 13 hits. Huegli was three for three with three RBIs. Ruesch, Klapatauskas, Paulson and Miller had two hits each.

Klapatauskas struck out eight in four innings of work and allowed six hits.

After Wednesday’s big game, the Raiders will remain quite busy. They’re scheduled to host Merrill Friday at 5 p.m., face Stevens Point Pacelli at 10 a.m. and Edgar at 2 p.m. Saturday in Thorp as part of the Gilman-Thorp Slamfest. They’ll get a good test Monday at Hayward, the team they faced in last spring’s WIAA Division 2 regional final.

Then it’s back to conference play with a trip to Rhinelander Tuesday, a 4 p.m. visit from the Hodags Wednesday and the GNC finale May 12 against Mosinee at home at 5 p.m.

“We’re feeling good,” Miller said. “We know we have to play hard, but as long as we can keep this hitting up and our defense up, we’ll be good.”

Medford 4, Mosinee 3

While Medford put some past demons to rest last year by winning at Mosinee’s new turf field, the Raiders took another step toward ending the Mosinee hex Monday, earning a big come-from-behind 4-3 win at the City Park diamond that had given the Raiders so much trouble in years past.

A three-run fourth inning rally tied the game and Ruesch’s RBI single in the top of the sixth pushed across Paulson with the go-ahead run that kept Medford in position to re-take the conference lead, going into Wednesday’s game at Antigo.

While the current Raiders had little to do with all the rough outings of the past, they are the only group since the Great Northern Conference was formed in 2008-09 to win in Mosinee in back-to-back years, which Berndt acknowledged is no small feat.

Medford collected 10 hits off Mosinee’s solid sophomore hurler Adeline Strejc. While the Raiders still stranded 11 runners, there were better swings and contact as the game went along and, in that big fourth inning, the ability to put the ball in play forced Mosinee into some key mistakes.

“Now we need to take care of business on Wednesday,” Berndt said after the win. “We’re starting to hit now, so that’s big.”

Mosinee scored the game’s first run on a two-out RBI single by Maggie Woller in the bottom of the second that scored Maria Valls Raya from second base. She had singled to lead off the inning. In the third, Strejc got just enough of a Miller offering to put it over the fence in rightcenter for a two-run homer that put the Indians up 3-0.

But Miller and the Medford defense settled down after that, allowing just five more base runners on two hits the rest of the way. Miller finished with 15 strikeouts and two walks, one hit batter and five hits allowed.

After leaving the bases loaded in the top of the third, thanks to two hard-hit ground balls that Mosinee got forceouts on, the Raiders went back to work in the fourth, getting a leadoff single by Ruesch. Makala Ulrich beat out a dribbler for an infield hit and a throwing error by Strejc on the play put runners at second and third. Hope Faude beat out another dribbler for an infield hit that loaded them.

Brehm hit another slow roller, this time to third baseman Alanna Bembenek, whose throw got by Valls Raya, the catcher, and allowed Ruesch and Ulrich to score. Seidl looped a single to shallow left to bring in Faude with the tying run.

In the sixth, Miller pulled an infield single to the hole between third and short, but she was forced at second on Paulson’s bouncer for the second out. Klapatauskas singled to right to keep the inning alive for Ruesch, who dropped a single into shallow center to score Paulson from second.

Ruesch was two for four at the plate and was inches away from being four for four. She hit a laser in the second that was speared by shortstop Hailey Shnowske and Shnowske made an incredible diving catch to rob Ruesch of a looping hit behind third base in the fifth.

Mosinee threatened in the bottom of the sixth, getting a single from Valls Raya, a sacrifice bunt from Bembenek and Megan Garski reached on a dropped third strike. Miller struck out Woller and Tristan Wicklund to get out of the jam. Huegli made a tough running catch of a shallow fly ball to center hit by Mikah Keller to start the seventh, where Mosinee did get a two-out walk from Strejc but nothing else.

“Getting out of the sixth inning was big,” Berndt said.

Miller and Faude both went two for four at the plate for Medford and Ulrich was two for three.

DH sweep of T-Birds

On Friday, Medford played its first games in several years at Jaycee Field and swept a doubleheader with Lakeland under the lights. Lakeland’s standout freshman pitcher Saylor Timmerman didn’t make it easy, but the Raiders took advantage of Lakeland’s inexperienced defense to notch 3-0 and 8-1 wins.

“Weird games, but they’re Ws,” Berndt said.

Miller and Timmerman both struck out 13 batters in game one. Medford had two hits, while Lakeland had only one.

Ruesch led off the bottom of the second by getting hit by a pitch, stealing a base and then scoring after a thirdstrike passed ball on Ulrich and a wild pitch. Paulson singled with one out in the third and stole second. Klapatauskas hit a bouncer back to Timmerman, who tried to catch Paulson straying too far from second on the fielder’s choice. Paulson got back safely and a double steal put both runners in scoring position. Paulson scored on a throw to first on a dropped third strike against Ruesch.

Huegli hit a bunt single to start the fifth, moved up two bases on a stolen base and passed ball and scored on Miller’s groundout.

Huegli also had one of the defensive plays of the game, running down a fourth-inning drive by Ali Timmerman that seemed headed for the fence in rightcenter. In the fifth, Miller blocked the plate nicely, took a throw from Seidl after a pitch had gotten past her and tagged out courtesy runner Yvonne Wolfe to end a scoring threat. Wolfe was running for Saylor Timmerman, who singled to start the inning for Lakeland’s only hit.

Timmerman walked just two batters. Game two was all about taking advantage of defensive mistakes as Timmerman was dominant, notching 19 strikeouts and allowing just two hits. Playing as the visitors, Medford jumped ahead 2-0 in the top of the first. Miller bunted for a hit and advanced two bases on a throwing error. Paulson’s bunt turned into a fielder’s choice when Lakeland turned its attention to Miller and Paulson wound up on second. Both eventually scored on wild pitches.

Klapatauskas drove in a run with a fielder’s choice in the third. Two runs scored on wild pitches in the fourth to make it 5-0 before Timmerman hit a solo home run to give Lakeland its only run of the day in the bottom half. A run scored on an error in the sixth and two more scored on passed balls in the seventh.

Miller struck out 11 in 5.1 innings, walked three and allowed two hits and the run. Klapatauskas got the last five outs, walking two, striking out one and allowing a hit.

Seidl had Medford’s other hit, singling in the second. But the positive item offensively to come out the doubleheader was Medford’s improvements in getting bunts down and moving runners.

Medford 10, Tomahawk 0

Miller threw a five-inning no-hitter, with a hit batter being her only real mistake, and the offense scored in every inning in a 10-0 drubbing of visiting Tomahawk Thursday afternoon.

Three-run rallies in the fourth and fifth innings ended the game early as Medford earned its second straight win over the Hatchets, though the games were played over a nine-day span.

Miller’s only hint of trouble came in the top of the first when leadoff hitter Sammy Gebauer reached on an error and was bunted to second by Scout Stromberg. Miller then clipped her pitching counterpart, Maddie Moreno, with a pitch, but she struck out Macy Jankiewicz and Emerson Lange to end the threat. The only other runner to reach the rest of the way was Stromberg, who struck out on a pitch in the dirt in the second inning but reached on a throwing error.

Miller finished with nine strikeouts. Miller and Paulson both drove in four runs. Paulson was three for four, while Miller was two for four.

Miller walked, stole second and scored on Paulson’s single to get the ball rolling in the bottom of the first. Paulson advanced on a wild pitch and scored when clean-up hitter Ruesch banged a double off the leftfield fence.

Seidl singled in the second and scored on Paulson’s two-out hit. Klapatauskas walked, stole second and scored after two wild pitches to make it 4-0 in the third.

Walks to Seidl and Morgan Huegli led to Miller’s two-run single and Paulson drove her in while reaching on an error in the fourth. The Raiders finished the game off in the fifth when three walks led to Miller’s two-run single and the gameending bloop single to center by Paulson.

Seidl was one for one with two walks and scored three times. Huegli scored twice. Medford had just seven hits, but the Raiders showed patience at the plate by drawing eight walks and cutting their strikeouts down to four. Moreno fanned 13 Raiders in the April 21 meeting.

MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS