MEDFORD SOFTBALL - Mosinee outplays Raiders to stay unbeaten atop GNC

MEDFORD SOFTBALL

There have been some ups and downs through the first half of the season for Medford’s young softball team, but the Raiders had done enough to earn a shot at climbing into first place in the Great Northern Conference standings Monday.

That shot was still there until the top of Monday’s fifth inning when undefeated Mosinee took advantage of five hits, three errors and a hit batter to score seven runs and deliver the knockout punch in its 12-3 win at Raider Field.

On another gray, wet and windy day this spring is becoming known for, the Raiders made some plays, the biggest of which was Ava Hartl’s two-out, two-run single in the bottom of the first inning, while holding an early 3-0 lead. But they didn’t make enough plays to be able to hold down the potent Indians’ lineup for seven innings.

Mosinee improved to 8-0 in the GNC after beating Antigo 14-1 on Tuesday and will be tough for anyone to catch the rest of the way. The Indians are 15-0 overall and are now the state’s top-ranked team in Division 2 ahead of New London, who Medford has lost to twice. Medford is in second place in the GNC at 6-2 and fell to 9-6 overall.

“We just have to be able to make some plays,” Medford head coach Virgil Berndt said. “And we have to realize we’re young yet. But man, did (Mosinee) make some plays.”

Medford was up to the challenge in the first inning. Rylee Hraby stranded an Indian at third with a strikeout to end the top half and she stroked a double to deep left-center to open the bottom half. Hraby advanced to third when Mosinee dropped Finley Arndt’s fly ball to shallow left and scored when the Indians threw away Tori Konieczny’s sacrifice bunt, which put runners on second and third.

Mosinee pitcher Ava Busse gave herself a chance to get out of the inning with no further damage with a strikeout and a pop-up, but Hartl came through, lining a shot up the middle to score Arndt and Konieczny.

The Indians started to hit the ball hard in the top of the third. Emily Verhasselt curled a high drive around the fair pole in left for a leadoff solo homer. With one out, Taelyn Jirschele sliced a triple to the rightfield corner. She scored on Amber Gonzalez’s groundout. Consecutive singles by Alanna Bembenek, Maggie Woller and Addyson Henrich drove in the tying run before Hraby struck out Busse to end the inning there.

The Raiders, who finished with five hits and made some solid contact at times against Busse, had their best opportunity to regain the lead in the bottom of the third. Arndt singled and stole second. She likely would’ve scored had Zayleah Leonhardt’s grounder gotten into rightfield, but Henrich, Mosinee’s freshman second baseman, made a diving stop to retire Leonhardt for the inning’s second out and keep Arndt at third. A fly ball out ended the inning.

“We had other chances,” Berndt said. “If that second baseman doesn’t make that great play we score again and who knows what happens after that.”

Hraby got a big third out in the fourth, retiring Jirschele on a ground ball to third baseman Chelsea Gebauer to strand a runner at third, but the Raiders weren’t nearly as fortunate in the fifth.

The big rally started with a bunt single by Gonzalez, who was bunted to second by Bembenek. Woller singled up the middle and an errant throw on the infield allowed Gonzalez to score. Henrich’s single scored Woller and a dropped deep fly ball hit by Busse scored Henrich. Adeline Strejc singled in yet another run to make it 7-3 and Verhasselt was hit by a pitch.

A strikeout got Medford an out away from ending the rally there, but Jirschele singled in a run, a run scored on a successful double steal and Gonzalez singled in the last run of the inning.

Mosinee tacked on two unearned runs in the seventh on a double by Gonzalez, who finished three for five with four runs batted in. Woller and Jirschele also had two of Mosinee’s 13 hits.

Jada Surek and Konieczny both added a hit for Medford. Just five of the 12 runs charged to Hraby were earned. She struck out six and walked one.

Busse also struck out six Raiders and walked one while allowing no earned runs.

Medford stays in GNC play for the next week. The team is scheduled to host Tomahawk today, Thursday, though the forecast is calling for rain. The team will look to avenge an early-season loss to Antigo when it visits the Red Robins Tuesday. Northland Pines is in Medford on May 9 before the Raiders host Merrill May 10 in non-conference play.

Raiders 11, Hodags 1

On a miserably windy afternoon for softball, the Raiders took care of business Friday by handling visiting Rhinelander 11-1 in five innings. An eight-run first inning set the tone in that one.

Medford outhit the Hodags 8-4 and took advantage of five walks and several defensive miscues by Rhinelander (1-7, 1-11). Most of the first-inning runs scored on wild pitches or passed balls.

Medford got an unearned run in the third and, after Rhinelander got on the board in the top of the fourth, the Raiders got their 10-run margin with two in the bottom half. Kayla Baumgartner had an RBI single and Laney Hraby added a sacrifice fly.

Laney Hraby was two for two and scored twice. Gebauer was two for two and also scored twice.

Rylee Hraby struck out four and walked one in two scoreless, hitless innings. Konieczny pitched the last three innings, allowing four hits and an earned run while striking out two. Medford 4, Lakeland 0

Despite striking out an incredible 27 times Thursday, Medford found a way to defeat host Lakeland 4-0 in an 11-inning pitcher’s duel between Rylee Hraby and Lakeland’s Saylor Timmerman.

Hraby added 20 strikeouts of her own while allowing just three hits in 11 innings. She walked seven, but five of those were intentional passes to Timmerman, as Berndt decided he was not going to allow Lakeland’s standout to beat the Raiders with her bat.

“That game was a classic,” Berndt said. “Forty-seven strikeouts. We had chances to score, then they had chances to score.”

The scoreless tie was finally broken in the top of the 11th when Medford’s rally started, fittingly, with a strikeout. Addison Brahmer beat out a third-strike in the dirt and reached first to start the inning. She stole second and moved to third on a sacrifice bunt from Grace Schmidtfranz. Rylee Hraby’s looper into shallow leftfield was dropped allowing Brahmer to score. A two-out error on a ball hit by Konieczny allowed the second run to score. After a walk, Gebauer clinched it with a two-run single that scored Konieczny and courtesy runner Kayla Baumgartner.

Medford stranded one runner at second base in the top of the first. Gebauer singled and reached third with two outs in the seventh, but Timmerman got a strikeout to strand her. Arndt singled and got to third in the ninth, but two strikeouts kept her there. Timmerman got all three outs in an inning by strikeout six times.

Lakeland stranded a runner on third in the second inning and left two on in the fifth after Timmerman was intentionally walked in the fifth. In the bottom of the eighth, Timmerman was walked and bunted to second. An error put runners at second and third, but Hraby got out of it with a pop fly and a groundout.

In the 10th, Lakeland’s Karlin Williams singled and motored to third on an error to lead off the inning. Malia Newport followed with a comebacker to Hraby and the Raiders got Williams at the plate for a huge first out. Hraby then got a strikeout and a groundout to end the threat and set up the winning 11th-inning rally.

Gebauer was two for five. Rylee Hraby, Arndt and Konieczny had a hit apiece.

Medford’s Ryleee Hraby lifts the fly ball to shallow leftfield that is mishandled by Lakeland’s defense and allows the go-ahead run to score in the 11th inning of Thursday’s 4-0 win at Lakeland. The teams struck out a combined 47 times in the game. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS