6-0 Raiders ready for GNC tests this week

MEDFORD SOFTBALL

It took the offense a little while to get going, but once Medford started putting the softball in play, the Rhinelander Hodags were finished in the Raiders’ 11-1 win Tuesday in the team’s long-awaited home opener.

At 4-0 in the Great Northern Conference and 6-0 overall, the Raiders are stating their early case as the team to beat in the league. They will know more in the next week when two of their next three GNC contests will feature contenders Mosinee and Antigo.

Medford goes to Mosinee, its historical house of horrors today, Thursday, for a 5 p.m. first pitch and hosts Antigo on Tuesday also at 5 p.m.

“One at a time,” head coach Virgil Berndt said after Tuesday’s win, the fifth for the Raiders that wasn’t close at the end.

Martha Miller fired a six-inning threehitter that included 12 strikeouts, no walks and one unearned run, which keeps Miller’s earned run average at zero through 26 innings. It was the first run a team has scored with Miller in the circle. Offensively, Medford wound up with eight hits off two Hodag pitchers and put the game away with four runs in the third and four more in the fourth.

The Raiders took a 1-0 lead in the first when Miller walked, stole second, went to third on Allie Paulson’s sacrifice bunt and scored when Rhinelander misplayed Hope Faude’s fielder’s choice.

After Rhinelander pitcher Adriana DeMeyer struck out the side in the second, number-nine hitter Allie Wesle got the big third inning started with a walk. Miller bunted Wesle to second and Paulson doubled her in. Faude walked and, with two down, Morgan Huegli singled in both runners. She scored on a single by Delani Clausnitzer to make it 5-0.

“We weren’t hitting it well early, but it got better,” Berndt said.

A two-out throwing error and two bloop singles, including the run-scoring hit by Annika Johnson got Rhinelander on the board in the top of the fourth.

It wasn’t so much the hitting, but it was Medford’s aggressive base running that frustrated the Hodags in the bottom half. Katie Brehm led off the inning by dropping a single into no-man’s land in shallow center. She went to second on Wesle’s sacrifice bunt and moved to third on a passed ball. Miller walked and immediately took off for second, getting herself in a rundown. Brehm scored and Miller wound up diving safely back into first base. She stole second before Paulson walked. Faude grounded to third and beat Abigail Bixby’s throw for an infield hit. Miller never stopped running and scored. An errant throw to the plate also brought in Paulson.

Faude wound up at third on the play and scored on a wild pitch.

Medford ended things in the sixth when Faude walked and scored on a line drive double to deep left by Laurissa Klapatauskas and Huegli singled up the middle to score Klapatauskas.

Huegli went three for four with three RBIs to lead Medford’s eight-hit attack.

DeMeyer allowed five hits, five walks and nine runs, five of which were earned in four innings. She struck out five. Bixby took over from there, allowing two earned runs and three hits while walkthe ing one and striking out one.

In between, the two big GNC games, Medford also hosts Wausau West Friday in non-conference play at 5 p.m., gets Lakeland at home in GNC play Saturday at 11 a.m. and hosts non-conference foe Stratford Monday at 5 p.m.

A May 20 game with Merrill was taken off the schedule Tuesday.

2-0 at Gilman

The Raiders got their best test of the year in a 5-0 win over Hurley Saturday morning in the Gilman-Thorp Slamfest and then had just about everything go their way in a 24-0 rout of Spencer in game two.

Hurley, a 2019 sectional finalist in Division 5, came into Saturday’s game with a 5-0 record and held Medford its seasonlow run total, but the North Stars were no match for Miller and the Raiders defense. Miller struck out 15, walked one and allowed just two hits in seven innings.

Hurley got a leadoff double by Darian Bender in the fifth, but a strikeout and two groundouts ended that threat. Mackenzie Bockman hit a two-out single in the sixth and went to second on an error, but a strikeout left her there.

An error and the lone walk put two North Stars on to start the bottom of the seventh in their best threat. But a pop-up, a groundout and a strikeout ended it.

The Raiders stranded a runner in the first, but took a 2-0 lead in the top of the second. Huegli reached on an error and Paulson reached on a one-out error when she put down a sacrifice bunt. Brehm’s grounder drove in Huegli. Wesle’s big two-out hit scored Paulson.

A three-run, two-out rally in the fourth provided the final margin. Brehm hit a two-out double and scored on a single by Madisyn Pilgrim. Miller followed with an RBI double. She scored on a double by Faude.

Huegli and Miller had two hits apiece. Medford had nine hits in the win.

Winless Spencer had no chance in the afternoon game as Klapatauskas struck out nine in a four-inning no-hitter and the offense pounded out 19 hits.

The top of the first featured RBI singles from Paulson, Klapatauskas and Brehm. Paulson hit another RBI single in the second and Huegli later cleared bases with an inside-the-park grand slam. She smoked a drive to deep center that took Rocket centerfielder Hailey Smith to the fence. She tumbled over the short fence, but the ball stayed in play, allowing the Raiders to easily circle the bases and make it 8-0.

The lead grew to 12-0 in the third that included a run-scoring double by Chloe Werner, run scoring sacrifices by Miller and Paulson and an RBI triple to deep right by Abbie Frey.

The Raiders keep banging the ball around in the fourth. The 12-run rally included a three-run triple and a two-run double by Faude, a two-run double by Ulrich and run-scoring doubles for Werner, Rachael Schreiber and Klapatauskas.

Werner and Klapatauskas both went three for three. Ulrich was three for four. Faude was two for two with five RBIs. Huegli had the four RBIs on her grand slam and Paulson had three RBIs.

Medford’s Morgan Huegli slides into home plate to complete her inside-the-park grand slam that gives the Raiders an 8-0 lead in the second inning of their game with Spencer Saturday afternoon in Gilman.MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS