Raiders settle for title tie, still confident they can make a run

MEDFORD SOFTBALL

For the first time since the formation of the Great Northern Conference in the 2008-09 school year, the Medford Raiders are repeat champions in the sport of softball.

This year’s title, however, is a shared one with Mosinee and Antigo after the Raiders fell 9-5 to Mosinee in their conference finale on Thursday.

All three teams split their games for the year with each other and finished 10-2 in league play. Tomahawk finished a distant fourth at 5-7.

As the shared title suggests, things didn’t come as easily for the Raiders as they did last year when they went 12-0 in league play and won the GNC title by a four-game margin.

But at the same time, head coach Virgil Berndt said Monday, after a tough 3-0 non-conference loss to Phillips, that he still has full belief his team is capable of doing some late-season damage, especially if it can get healthy.

“We’re 17-4 which sounds pretty good, but we really could be 21-0,” he said. “With every team we lost to, we wouldn’t have needed to do much to beat them.

With almost 40 wins in two years, you can’t complain much. Now we just have to get the right ones.”

Those “right ones” start next week when Medford starts WIAA Division 2 tournament as the two-seed in its side of the sectional bracket. Medford will host either 10th-seeded Lakeland (3-11) or seventh- seeded Shawano (6-6 Bay Conference, 9-12 overall) at 5 p.m. Tuesday in a regional semifinal that might not be easy no matter which team wins the regional opener today, Thursday. Medford won a tight 2-1 game with Shawano in Rhinelander back on April 9 and Medford only got a handful of hits against Lakeland’s standout freshman Sailer Timmerman in a 3-0, 8-1 doubleheader sweep on April 29.

A win Tuesday puts Medford in a May 26 regional final at home against either sixth-seeded Waupaca (10-12) or thirdseeded Antigo (14-4-1). Medford lost 3-1 at home to Antigo on April 19 but beat the Red Robins 3-2 in eight innings on their home field on May 4.

In fact, Medford went 6-0 on the road in the GNC this year, including a second straight win at Mosinee, something no other GNC team has done since 2009. That ability to win on the road could be big on May 31 if Medford has to visit top-seeded New London in the sectional semifinal. However, New London (19-3) may have to get through a peaking Mosinee team in its regional final. In Monday’s state coaches poll, New London was ranked third in Division 2, while Medford was ranked ninth and Mosinee (16-4) was 10th.

“The way I look at it, if we have to drive over to New London, I think we’ll be fine,” Berndt said.

Medford’s chances of success would be enhanced with the return of pitcher and leadoff hitter Martha Miller, who has been out with a hamstring injury suffered May 7. She did resume some light throwing early this week in hopes of being able to return to action next week.

The last time Medford was a repeat conference champion was in 2008 as the Raiders ended a three-year run atop the Lumberjack Conference.

Medford is scheduled to complete its regular season with a game at Wausau West tonight, Thursday, at 6 p.m. and a 4 p.m. home doubleheader with New Richmond on Friday.

Mosinee 9, Medford 5

The chance at the outright title slipped away Thursday due to some missed opportunities on offense and Mosinee’s ability to get key hits as well as take advantage of seemingly every miscue Medford made.

The Raiders had things going their way early, taking a 3-1 lead in the second inning on Katie Brehm’s towering home run that finally landed just over the leftfi eld fence. The lead held until the fourth when Mosinee took the lead for good on a three-run homer by Maria Valls Raya, which followed a base hit by Adeline Strejc and an error by Medford on the ensuing sacrifice bunt by Hailey Shnowske.

Strejc got a big strikeout of Laurissa Klapatauskas in the bottom half of the inning as Medford left the bases loaded. Medford got back within 5-4 on a two-out RBI infield single from Hope Faude in the fifth, but they stranded two in that frame as well. An RBI single by Makala Ulrich in the sixth got Medford within 6-5 but, again, the Raiders left two runners on.

Mosinee broke it open in the seventh, getting a leadoff homer from Shnowske and two-out RBI singles from Daisy Spink and Mikah Keller.

Madisyn Pilgrim had a big offensive night for the Raiders, going three for four with two doubles and reaching base on an error. Rynn Ruesch was three for three with a walk and scored twice. Four more Raiders hit a hit apiece.

Klapatauskas allowed 10 hits and four walks while striking out six. Six of Mosinee’s nine runs were earned.

The Indians, who have now won at least a share of 12 out of a possible 13 GNC titles don’t figure to be going away anytime soon. This year’s group has five freshmen and four sophomores on the varsity roster, including Strejc, who struck out four Raiders and walked three while picking up Thursday’s win.

Raiders 15, Hodags 0

Klapatauskas threw a no-hitter while the offense had little trouble scoring runs May 11 in Medford’s second four-inning rout of Rhinelander in as many nights.

This 15-0 victory at Raider Field clinched Medford’s piece of the GNC title and was accomplished offensively with five runs in the first inning, four in the second, four more in the third, including Pilgrim’s first varsity home run, and two in the fourth.

Klapatauskas didn’t come close to allowing a hit, striking out eight and retiring four Hodag batters on comeback bouncers right to her. Unfortunately two of the strikeout victims reached base on third-strike passed balls. She walked two batters.

Rhinelander actually loaded the bases in the second with the third-strike miscues and a walk, but Klapatauskas whiffed number-nine hitter Samantha Sundby to get out of it.

Morgan Huegli led off Medford’s first inning with a double and scored on Allie Paulson’s single. Paulson scored on a Ruesch double, Ulrich tripled to the rightfield corner and scored on Hope Faude’s two-out single. Pilgrim’s base hit knocked in Faude.

Huegli walked, stole second and scored on another Paulson single to start the second. Paulson later scored on a wild pitch. Klapatauskas walked and courtesy runner Katie Lybert later scored on Ulrich’s two-out single. Ulrich scored on a sacrifi ce fly by Brehm. Pilgrim’s bomb to right-center started the four-run third. Abbie Frey singled, went from first to third on a wild pitch and scored on Huegli’s groundout. Ulrich collected two more RBIs when she bounced a single off the glove of diving shortstop Adriana DeMeyer with the bases loaded.

Medford closed it out in the fourth when Pilgrim was hit by a pitch, pinch runner Brynn Thorson went from first to third on a wild pitch, scored on Chloe Werner’s groundout and Huegli walked and circled the bases on wild pitches.

Ulrich was three for three while piling up her four RBIs. Paulson was three for three drove in two runs and scored three. Pilgrim was two for two with two RBIs.

Rhinelander finished league play at 2-10. Starting pitcher Alayna Haenel, went 2.1 innings, allowing 12 runs and 11 of Medford’s 12 hits. She walked two with no strikeouts. Kelsi Beran allowed the last three runs on one hit, one walk and three hit batters.

Phillips 3, Medford 0

In the second of two non-conference games this week, the Raiders were shut out for the second time this year by the Phillips Loggers and pitcher Kendall Weik Monday in a 3-0 game played on the Raiders’ home diamond.

The Loggers (15-2), who are ranked fourth in the state in Division 4, got an unearned run in the second and got all the breaks in an inning of inches in the sixth to give Weik all the support she needed. The junior struck out seven Raiders, walked only one and allowed just four hits.

Three of those hits came in the fourth when Medford had its best chance to score. Paulson and Klapatauskas hit leadoff singles, but Paulson was thrown out by centerfielder Allie Williams trying to go from first to third. Ruesch then beat out an infield hit, but first baseman Brianne Guzinski threw a rocket to third to nab Klapatauskas on that play for the inning’s second out. Weik then struck out Ulrich to end that threat.

The Raiders never had more than one base runner in any other inning, including the seventh when Faude hit a one-out single.

Klapatauskas had a strong outing for Medford, striking out five, walking four, hitting one and allowing five hits. Brooke Eckert dropped in a two-out base hit to drive in courtesy runner Lily Milker in the second after Weik had singled. An errant pickoff throw moved the runner into scoring position and Medford paid for it.

The sixth started ominously for Medford when Jensen Weik perfectly blooped a leadoff single inches inside the chalk behind first base. Paige Edwards followed with a liner that again, barely stayed fair in rightfield. An error on Guzinski’s bunt loaded the bases with no outs. Jensen Weik then barely beat out a throw home Paulson at short on Kendall Weik’s fielder’s choice to make it 2-0. Ulrich, playing third base, caught an infield fly by Megan Deleasky and then Medford nearly turned an inning-ending double play, but Frey, the leftfielder, and catcher Eryka Seidl didn’t quite connect on the throw on Eckert’s sacrifice fly.

Medford 13, Neillsville 9

On Friday, the Raiders banged out 16 hits, including four from Faude and got a solid first varsity pitching outing from Delaney Hraby in a 13-9 non-conference win at Neillsville.

The Raiders built a 13-1 lead and had a chance to end the game in the fifth, but a couple of errors fueled a seven-run rally that got the Warriors back into it. But Hraby and the Raiders got through it with little damage the rest of the way.

Hraby, a junior, struck out three, walked two and gave up just three earned runs on 12 hits.

Faude drove in three runs and added a sacrifice fly. Huegli was two for three with two runs batted in and two scored. Brehm was two for two and freshman catcher Brynn Thorson was three for four and scored three times out of the ninth spot in the order. Ruesch hit a tworun double in Medford’s three-run second that made it 5-0. Brehm had an RBI double in the four-run fifth. Thorson also doubled in that inning.

Medford’s Rynn Ruesch slides under the tag from Phillips second baseman Jensen Weik and steals the base during the fourth inning of Monday’s 3-0 non-conference loss to the Loggers.MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS

Katie Lybert rounds third and heads for home during Medford’s 15-0 win over Rhinelander on May 11.MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS