Walk-off win over state champs highlights opening-day sweep

MEDFORD BASEBALL

Brigham Kelley’s single with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning late Friday afternoon knocked in Aiden Gardner with the game-ending run and capped a 4-3 win over Denmark, capping a near-perfect first day of baseball for the Medford Raiders.

The extra-inning win over the defending WIAA Division 2 state champions was Medford’s second win of the day as the Raiders also cruised to a 10-0 win over New Richmond behind a three-hit shutout from pitcher Caleb Guden.

But the win over Denmark was the big one as Logan Baumgartner took a nohitter into the sixth, the Raiders, down to their last out, took advantage of some breaks to tie the game with two runs in the seventh and then won it with perfect small-ball in the eighth.

“It was a good first day of games for us,” Medford head coach Justin Hraby said. “You could tell that our guys did not see any live pitching yet. It took the bats a while to get going in the first game. In game two we saw some better pitching, which was a good early season challenge for us.”

Leading 3-1 in the bottom of the seventh, Denmark quickly got two outs from reliever Jaycob Dittmer and appeared to have the game won when Medford’s Seth Mudgett hit a little looper behind second base. But miscommunication between second baseman Luke Miller and center- fielder Ethan Ovsek allowed the ball to drop and keep hope alive for some of Medford’s best hitters.

Tanner Hraby sliced the next pitch to rightfield for a single, then Guden hit a slow chopper up the middle that shortstop Abe Kapinos threw away, allowing Mudgett to score and putting Hraby and Guden into scoring position. Hraby scored the tying run on a wild pitch. Denmark avoided further damage by retiring Baumgartner on a grounder to Kapinos.

Denmark got a two-out infield single by Ovsek in the top of the eighth, but Mudgett retired Hayden Konkol on a ground ball to Baumgartner at third. Gardner drew a walk to lead off the bottom half and was bunted to second by designated hitter Braxton Weissmiller. Pinch-hitter Colby Elsner nearly won it by lining a rocket back up the middle, but Dittmer speared it while getting out of the way. That set the stage for Kelley, who lined a 2-2 pitch just out of the reach of Miller, who dove to his right to try to keep the ball on the infield.

“Braxton doesn’t get asked to bunt often, but when he was asked he laid down a great one,” coach Hraby said. “This is why all players need to take the bunt station seriously in practice. You never know when you will be called upon to lay one down. I’m really happy for Brigham. He had some tough at-bats during the day. For him to end the day on a walk-off for us really tells you about the type of person he is. He just keeps fighting until he gets the result he wants.”

Baumgartner and Mudgett combined to allow just four hits in the win. Baumgartner allowed just one walk to the game’s first batter and then cruised through the first five innings before the Vikings finally got to him and the Raiders’ defense in the top of the sixth. Pinchhitter Jay Wallerius walked but Nolan Perry was Baumgartner’s fifth strikeout victim. Miller singled and a wild pitch put the runners at second and third. Kapinos grounded a single to left to score Wallerius, a low throw home allowed Miller to score on a fielder’s choice and Konkol’s grounder up the middle eluded Guden to drive in Kapinos. That ended Baumgartner’s outing, but Mudgett got two fly balls to end the inning and wound up getting the win with two strikeouts and one hit allowed in 2.2 innings.

“Logan was about as dominant as you can be through five innings,” Hraby said. “This against the defending state champs who brought a lot of offense back from that team. Logan got ahead early and put them away with some good off-speed pitches. Seth did a great job of coming in and holding them down to give us a chance to come back and win. He is used to being put in tough spots as last year he did it and did it well on a number of occasions.”

Medford took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first when Mudgett walked, was bunted to second by Tanner Hraby and scored on a two-out throwing error on a chopper hit by Gardner. Medford had just six hits. Guden was two for three. Earlier in the day, Denmark beat Northwood-Solon Springs 6-2. Lucas Kraschnewski, a 1998 Medford graduate, is an assistant coach on Denmark’s staff.

Raiders 10, Tigers 0

For the second straight year, Guden started the season with an outstanding outing on the mound in Medford’s 10-0 win over New Richmond.

Last year, he opened with a five-inning no-hitter against Northland Pines. On Friday, he needed just 76 pitches to strike out eight and walk none in his three-hitter.

“Caleb was tough on the mound,” Hraby said. “He was very efficient with his pitches. He had five quality innings where he threw 13 pitches or less. Our goal was to keep him around 75 pitches. I didn’t envision that getting us a complete game shutout. He got ahead early, and put them away shortly after. He proved why he is one of the best pitchers in our conference.”

Medford took the lead in the top of the third inning on a two-run single by Baumgartner. The Raiders stretched the lead to 5-0 in the fifth with an RBI groundout by Baumgartner, an RBI single from Gardner and infield RBI hit by Steve Hraby.

Weissmiller singled and Tanner Hraby doubled in the sixth. Guden singled in Mudgett and Baumgartner’s sacrifice fly scored Hraby. In the seventh, Kelley walked and Parker Lissner singled with one out. Mudgett reached on a fielder’s choice as an errant throw scored Kelley. Walks to Hraby and Guden forced in a run and Baumgartner drove in his fifth run of the game with a groundout.

Guden was two for three, Steve Hraby was two for four and Mudgett went two for four and scored three runs.

“We did a great job of situational hitting,” coach Hraby said. “Moving runners to third with no outs, putting the ball in play with a runner on third, getting the ball in the air, we scored runs in a number of different ways. Logan Baumgartner did a great job at the plate. He had some good at-bats and found a few different to drive in his runs. Hopefully we can continue to get runners on for him and Chubs. If we can, we will score some runs at the top of the order.”

Snowfall on Saturday morning canceled Medford’s final game of the weekend against Hudson.

Caleb Guden