One pitch away

WIAA DIV. 2 SOFTBALL

Clutch single ties it; Merrill ends Medford’s season in the 8th

One more strike.

That was all the Medford Raiders needed to advance to their first WIAA Division 2 softball sectional final since 2006 Monday night, but Merrill’s Courtney Krueger turned that potential strike three around, lining it into leftfield for a season-saving, game-tying tworun single that ultimately sparked the third-seeded Blue Jays to a 9-6, eight-inning upset win.

Krueger’s hit completed Merrill’s comeback from a 4-0 deficit that had stood since the third inning. With all the momentum going into extra innings, Merrill lit up the scoreboard for five runs in the top of the eighth. The top-seeded Raiders didn’t quit, getting two runs on the board in the bottom half and bringing Martha Miller to the plate as the tying run with two outs.

Her drive to left-center looked like trouble, but leftfi elder Olivia Losee caught it about 5 feet in front of the fence, barely avoiding a collision with centerfielder Dani Korman.

Just like that, Medford’s magnificent season was over at 21-3, which tied this year’s club with the 2006 state team with the best overall season record in school history.

“It wasn’t like we gave it to them,” Medford head coach Virg Berndt said, crediting Merrill’s hitters for their work late in the game. “We didn’t give it away.”

Merrill (13-10) advanced to the sectional final Wednesday at Mosinee against Baldwin-Woodville (20-0), who finished the regular season ranked second in the Division 2 state rankings, one spot ahead of Medford.

While much of the talk centered around Merrill’s offensive heroics in the last three innings, Berndt felt the game actually swung in the third and fourth innings, when the Raiders had chances to break the game open but stranded three runners in scoring position over those two innings.

Little was accomplished by either team offensively in the first two and a half innings, but Katie Brehm worked for a full-count walk from Krueger to start the bottom of the third. Allie Wesle put down a bunt that was fielded by Krueger who threw to second to try to get the force on Brehm, but shortstop Hannah Losee missed the base and Medford had two on with no outs. Miller bunted for a hit to load the bases for Allie Paulson, whose line drive was dropped by second baseman Addison Schmeltzer, allowing Brehm to score the game’s first run.

Medford’s hottest hitter late in the year, Laurissa Klapatauskas pulled a Krueger offering down the leftfield line, clearing the bases, and she ended up on third after the throw home with still nobody out.

Krueger, however, got three infield pop-ups to escape further damage.

“When we couldn’t get Laurissa in, a runner at third with nobody out, that was big,” Berndt said.

In the fourth, Rynn Ruesch led off with an infield single, stole second and went to third on Wesle’s infield single. Courtesy runner Katie Lybert stole second to put two runners in scoring position for the top of the order, but Krueger induced an infield pop fly from Miller and a fly ball to right from Paulson to escape the inning with Merrill still only down 4-0.

“We needed a ground ball,” Berndt said. “I probably should’ve bunted there.

Miller was locked in through five innings with eight strikeouts. Merrill’s only two base runners to that point had reached on errors.

But Korman, Merrill’s number-nine hitter, broke up the no-hit bid by lacing a triple to right-center and she scored when Olivia Losee’s drive to deep left bounced off Ruesch’s glove for a double. Losee later scored on a two-out error, another big play that loomed large in the game’s end result.

Merrill’s last-inning hopes rose when Zoey Barna’s swinging to no-man’s land on the third-base line resulted in an infi eld single. Miller, though, countered by getting Schmeltzer to pop out to Wesle, Medford’s catcher, and she struck out Brenna Steinagel to put Medford one out away from victory.

After Korman walked on four pitches, the Raiders thought they had the win on Olivia Losee’s ground ball to third baseman Delani Clausnitzer, but Losee was called safe on a bang-bang play at first base, loading the bases for Krueger. Miller quickly got ahead of her 0-2, but Krueger fought off the next pitch, pulling it into left to easily score two. Miller got Kendall Krueger to ground out to Paulson at short, but Medford went down in order in the seventh, quickly bringing Merrill’s hitters back to the plate.

Nicole Zoellner started the eighth with a single, Hannah Losee walked and Brea Pieper loaded the bases when her bunt was fumbled. Schmeltzer delivered the go-ahead single up the middle and Steinagel’s infield single scored Pieper. Olivia Losee drove in one with a groundout and the fifth run of the inning scored on a wild pitch.

“That never happened to us all year,” Berndt said. “Nobody hit us hard like that. I don’t know if Martha got tired or not. I don’t think so. That’s just a good hitting team.”

Clausnitzer’s single started Medford’s last-gasp rally in the bottom half. Morgan Huegli walked, but was wiped out at second on Makala Ulrich’s fielder’s choice. Ruesch hit a sacrifice fly to right to score the pinch runner, Lybert. Brehm snuck a single down the rightfield line to score Ulrich and Wesle dropped a base hit into right to bring up Miller.

Her drive on an 0-1 pitch didn’t quite have enough steam to get to the fence, Losee caught up to it and Medford’s best hitters of late, Paulson and Klapatauskas, were due next but never got their chance.

Klapatauskas and Wesle both went two for four, accounting for nearly half of Medford’s nine hits. Krueger struck out four Raiders and walked two.

Miller struck out 10 and only walked two. Merrill had nine hits, all in the last three innings. Six of Merrill’s runs were earned.

Olivia Losee and Krueger both had two hits for Merrill.

While obviously a disappointing end for a team that had visions of ending Medford’s 15-year state drought, it was a season filled with numerous big moments from a team that had just three seniors and limited varsity experience coming into the year.

“No doubt about it, it was a great year,” Berndt said. “The only bad game we played was Shawano. Now we play some summer ball, get back in the gym in the winter and see what we got.”

Regional champs

Using the bunt and speed game that has emerged as quite a weapon in the second half of the season, the Raiders put four early runs on the board and cruised from there to a 7-3 win over upstart Hayward in the June 16 WIAA Division 2 regional final played in Medford.

The fifth-seeded Hurricanes, who had a rare upper-half finish in the Heart O’ North Conference, upset fourth-seeded Rice Lake 4-3 in the regional semifinal and had their best season in years at 16-7 overall, challenged Medford with solid pitching from sophomore Riley Sprenger, five hits and some good bunts of their own.

But it wasn’t enough to stop the Raiders from winning their 20th game of the season and the program’s first regional championship since 2011.

“They made us work for it, which was good,” Berndt said.

Medford was credited with just five base hits against the right-handed Sprenger, who struck out eight and walked only two. The Hurricanes’ defense, particularly the infield, just didn’t make enough plays behind their ace to keep Medford off the scoreboard.

The key inning was the second when Medford hung a three-spot on the board, all with two outs. Ulrich put down a bunt that freshman third baseman Madi Bergschneider bobbled to allow Ulrich to reach. She stole second and third. Rynn Ruesch walked and stole second to put a pair of runners in scoring position. They scored when Brehm hit a hard-hopper over the glove of freshman shortstop Avery Chucka for a two-base error.

Brehm then scored when Wesle was credited with a triple on a ball misplayed by freshman rightfielder Kate Boss.

Paulson reached on a bunt in the third when the throw from catcher Soile Doyle hit her in the back. She later scored from second base on an errant throw from Bergschneider on Huegli’s bunt.

Hayward got a run back in the fourth when Sprenger doubled and her courtesy runner, Maddy Lyons, scored on a wild pitch. But a two-run fifth put Medford in command at 6-1.

Again, Paulson bunted for a hit. First baseman Kennedy Sprenger misplayed a ground ball by Clausnitzer and the Hurricanes did not record an out on Huegli’s bunt as Paulson beat the throw to third. That loaded the bases for Ulrich, who tapped back to the pitcher for a force at home. But, two runs scored when Ruesch beat out an infield single.

Klapatauskas hit a two-out double to left to score Miller, who had bunted for a hit, to make it 7-1 in the sixth.

Hayward scored two, two-out runs in the seventh, but the outcome was never in serious doubt. The Raiders were able to celebrate when the third baseman, Clausnitzer, threw out Doyle on a ground ball to end it.

Miller won the pitcher’s duel between highly-touted sophomores by striking out 15 Hurricanes. Only one of Hayward’s runs was earned. She allowed five hits to five different hitters and no walks.

Medford third baseman Delani Clausnitzer fields this bouncer cleanly but Hayward’s Madi Bergschneider still beats it out for an infield hit in the third inning of the June 16 WIAA Division 2 regional final, won by the Raiders 7-3.MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS

The Raiders celebrate with the regional championship plaque after their 7-3 win over the Hayward Hurricanes.MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS