Raiders scratch out 2-1 win over Bloomer in a regional final classic
WIAA DIV. 2 REGIONAL CHAMPS
Just 24 hours after seeing a 12-9 slugfest with Merrill, Medford baseball fans were treated to great pitching and defense June 16 in the Raiders’ 2-1 win over Bloomer in one of the best WIAA Division 2 regional finals of the day.
The Raiders (23-3) came in ranked fourth in the final Division 2 state poll of the season, while Bloomer brought a 22-game winning streak and 22-2 overall record into Raider Field. With those credentials, the teams produced the expected one-run game that went down to the final out.
“What a battle,” Medford head coach Justin Hraby said after the Raiders clinched their first regional championship since 2010. “Bloomer was as good as advertised. It’s one of those games where it is too bad that someone has to go home. There are two teams that are definitely worthy of playing at sectionals.”
Medford earned the spot in Tuesday’s WIAA Division 2 Rice Lake sectional tournament behind a small-ball tworun rally in the second inning and the rebound pitching performance of Caleb “Chubs” Guden. One day after he got knocked around in a six-batter, 26-pitch relief appearance, he was sharp as could be on the mound while reaching his 100-pitch maximum with one out to go.
Guden struck out 11, did not allow an earned run or a walk and gave up just four hits to the potent Blackhawks’ lineup.
“I just had to trust my stuff and trust my defense,” Guden said. “The defense made a heck of a lot of good plays behind me. The defense did what they needed to do behind me and more.
“I felt more accurate today I guess,” he added. “That’s really all I can say. I felt better about today than yesterday. Yesterday I was put in a tough spot. Normally I do OK at that. But I was struggling to throw strikes to begin with and then I just couldn’t do anything about them hitting the ball whenever I threw them a strike.”
“Chubs was tough,” Hraby said. “I knew he would bounce back after struggling the night before. He gave us everything he had and was lights out on the mound.”
Bloomer got back-to-back two-out singles from Keegan Yohnk and starting pitcher Jack Strand to put up a mild first-inning threat, but Guden ended it by striking out Connor Crane.
The Raiders went down quietly in the first against Strand, but not in the second.
Spike Alexander drew a leadoff walk and Aiden Gardner singled to bring up Brigham Kelley, who dropped down a sacrifi ce bunt that set up run-scoring singles by Blaine Seidl and Logan Baumgartner. That wound up being all of the offense Medford got and needed.
“Brigham had a big bunt that moved the runners,” Hraby said. “It’s not something we have done a lot of this year, but we have been working on a lot lately in the event we needed to get one down. After the bunt, Blaine and Logan came up big with hits, scoring our only two runs of the game.”
Strand allowed three hits and two walks in four innings for Bloomer, who survived a 10-inning, 2-1 thriller with Mosinee the previous night. Ryder pitched 1.2 scoreless innings and Yohnk got the last out in the sixth.
Bloomer’s lone run came in the sixth. Ethan Rothbauer hit a leadoff single and moved to second on Jay Ryder’s groundout. An error on a ball hit by Yohnk scored Rothbauer and put Yohnk in scoring position, but Strand popped out to Kelley at first base and Crane popped up to Guden at the mound.
In the seventh, Cole Schwab grounded out to second, Guden ended his day by striking out Jackson Simmons and leftfi elder Emett Grunwald fought the sun to make an awkward diving catch on a liner by Connor Hicks to start the regional championship celebration. Regional
“Emett’s play at the end was huge,” Hraby said. “He lost it in the sun and then found it last second to make the catch. Tanner (Hraby) had a big play to start the seventh inning on a tough hopper, and Chubs struck a guy out after falling down 3-0. All of those things in the seventh showed that things were going our way. I’ve seen too many regional final games in the last 10 years go the opposite way for us. Heartbreaking losses. I wasn’t sure if we would ever get back to sectionals. This group is special and willed its way to sectionals.”
Guden and this team, of course, had little to do with 10 years of regional disappointment, but they certainly hadn’t forgotten the 2019 regional final where many of them were on the field when Antigo rallied late to upset the Raiders and went on to win the state championship.
“It’s very cool,” Guden said. “It’s great redemption, especially for us who were on that 2019 team and fell short in this very game. So it’s very cool to bounce back from that and crank this win out here. It was a close battle.
“I think we just needed to clear our heads actually (from the previous day),” he added. “That one inning yesterday where we had a few errors, we were in our heads. I think we just needed to flush that out of our system and bounce back and we did today.”
With the win, Medford finished 9-0 for the spring on Raider Field.
“Going undefeated at home is quite an accomplishment,” Hraby said. “We have never done that before. Our boys take a lot of pride in playing in front of their fans. We are hoping that our fans can create a homefield atmosphere for us in Rice Lake on Tuesday.”
