IT’S A THREE-PEAT

THREE-TIME GNC SOFTBALL CHAMPIONS

Miller’s late HR breaks deadlock in Antigo

In the biggest game of the softball season up to this point, the Medford Raiders knew their pitching ace Martha Miller was going to rise to the occasion Friday and put up zeros. With help from a handful of outstanding plays from her defense, she did.

When the situation called for Miller to come through with the bat in the top of the seventh inning, recent slump or not, the Raiders had that same belief the Great Northern Conference’s likely three-time Player of the Year, was going to do it.

With two runners on and one out in a tense scoreless tie with Antigo and the GNC championship riding on Friday’s outcome, Miller had her moment, drilling a three-run home run just over the top of the fence in straightaway centerfield that clinched the Raiders’ third straight GNC title in what wound up being a 3-1 win over the host Red Robins.

Medford finished 11-1 in GNC play and earned its second tense win of the season over Antigo, who wouldn’t have clinched the championship had they won on Friday, but they would’ve seized the lead and an opportunity to take the title going into their last two league games this week against Mosinee and Lakeland, which they wound up losing to fall to third place at 8-4.

“I’m always confident with Martha,” said senior Morgan Huegli, who got the seventh-inning rally started with a sharply-hit single off Antigo’s rising sophomore pitcher Bethany Lewis. Rylee Hraby’s one-out single added fuel to the fire. “(Miller) was kind of in a little slump these past couple games, but it definitely helped her focus.”

“I knew, like Morgan said, I was in a slump,” Miller said. “I knew I just had to stay relaxed up there. I was getting a little tense in my at-bats so I just calmed myself down, I just said I have to hit the ball. Yah, I knew (it was gone) off the bat. I mean, you know, you feel the pop.”

Antigo didn’t quit, getting a run in the bottom of the seventh on a Laura Burkhart single, a sacrifice bunt and a Raider error. But Miller didn’t let the threat get any further, retiring Molly Neufeld on a sacrifice fly and striking out Mya Burt to set off the championship celebration. It’s the third title in a row for Medford, who won it outright in 2021 and shared it last year with Antigo and Mosinee.

“That is pretty awesome,” Huegli said. “Coming in as incoming freshmen, we didn’t have our season (due to Covid). Then coming in as sophomores, I definitely did not expect to get as far as we did. It’s been awesome. We’ve had good teams throughout every single year.”

Getting the 18th win of the season on Friday took some work because Antigo wasn’t giving an inch. Hitters from both teams attacked strikes early in the count, which got hits here and there, but it also led to sharp defense on both sides and a quick game that took just an hour and a quarter to play.

Medford left a runner on base on the second and third innings, while Miller set the Robins down in order in the first three. In the top of the fourth, Antigo got its first web gem when leftfielder Sydnie Heinzen stretched as far as she could to pull in a line drive by Allie Paulson that was headed to leftfield corner for extra bases had she not grabbed it.

In the bottom half, Medford leftfielder Chelsea Gebauer made an all-out dive to catch Kailee Krueger’s sinking liner near the line for the second out of the inning. Burkhard broke up the perfect game with an infield single, a rocket, Paulson couldn’t quite glove at short, but Paulson ended the inning by tracking down Lily Weix’s looper to shallow left-center.

“Chelsea had a great play out there,” Medford catcher Eryka Seidl said. “The ump told me that was the best catch he’s seen all season.”

Weix made a big play to help Antigo get out of a fifth-inning jam. Huegli and Gebauer singled to start the inning. Hraby flied out to left and Miller hit a comebacker to Lewis, who got the second out of the inning by tossing the ball to third to get the lead runner. Weix dove to knock down Arndt’s grounder deep in the hole at short and scrambled to get the ball to third baseman Tristin Arlen to get the force on Gebauer.

Arlen just missed a long home run leading off the fifth when she pulled it just foul. Medford third baseman Zayleah Leonhardt then made a nice backhand scoop on Arlen’s ground ball to start a 1-2-3 inning.

“Both teams played very well,” Huegli said. “Both teams’ defense was pretty awesome.”

“It’s the best feeling in the world to know that they’re going to hit the ball off you and we have fielders that are going to back that up,” said Miller, who struck out seven, did not walk a batter and allowed just three hits. “We’re still going to get those outs. I really don’t have to worry about it. It’s pretty cool.”

Huegli and Hraby, hitting out of the seventh and ninth spots in the order, both went two for three. The Raiders got eight hits off Lewis, who struck out only one Raiders but didn’t walk any either.

“She’s got that really good outside curve,” Huegli said. “She’s a pretty good pitcher. She hits spots pretty good. You just have to know when to attack and be ready for that pitch right down the middle and get that.”

The win was Medford’s fourth last atbat win of the spring and its seventh win in games scoring four runs or less.

“I think we just want it,” Seidl said of the team’s knack for winning close games. “A lot of us our seniors and the incoming freshmen they know how to play. We want it. We know that we want it done and we get it.”

“We just keep chugging along,” Miller said. “We’ve been 18-1 and we were undefeated (16-0) at one point but I don’t think we ever felt like we were on top. We’re always that team that’s chipping away from the bottom up. Nothing too fancy, nothing too special, but we just get it done.”

Now 20-2 with one regular-season game left today, Thursday, at home at 5 p.m. against Wisconsin Rapids Assumption, the Raiders will soon turn their focus to the goal of getting past the WIAA Division 2 sectional semifinal roadblock that’s stopped them the past two years. The Raiders are the top seed in their halfbracket and will host either ninth-seeded Shawano or eighth-seeded Rhinelander in the regional semifinal Tuesday. The regional final follows on May 25.

“A lot of people say this is our year. It could be,” Seidl said. “We have a good chance at it. It’s looking good so far.”

“We have the one seed, but the one seed doesn’t mean anything to us because our whole regional and sectional is tough,” Miller said. “They’re all solid teams. they’re all teams that we’ve mainly faced already but we’re just going to try to go in there and get things done again.”

“We’ll just keep on chugging,” Seidl said.

Medford 17, Pines 0

Hraby threw a one-hit shutout with nine strikeouts and just two walks and the offense gave her plenty of support in a 17-0, five-inning win at Northland Pines on Thursday.

Leonhardt and Hope Faude had two hits apiece in Medford’s 12-hit attack. The Raiders scored in every inning, capped by a seven-run top of the fifth.

Three Eagle errors led to four firstinning runs. The Raiders got two runs in the second and one in the third to go up 7-0. They pushed three more across in the third. Two of them came when Faude was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and Ava Hartl walked to drive one in. The big fifth inning included a two-run double by Gebauer, an RBI single from Faude and RBI singles from Hartl and Hraby.

Hartl, Arndt, Paulson, Gebauer and Faude had two RBIs apiece. Arndt led Medford with three runs scored. The only hit for Pines was a Carly Huelskamp single in the fourth.

Mosinee 3, Medford 2

Medford’s season-opening winning streak ended at 16 on May 10 when Mosinee got some early base runners, took advantage of a couple mistakes and made a big defensive play late to earn a 3-2 win on Medford’s home field.

The Indians scored all of their runs in the first two innings and then held off two late threats by the Raiders. In the bottom of the fifth, Gebauer blooped a one-out double into shallow rightfield that Mosinee second baseman Martina Miller got a glove on but couldn’t haul in. Arndt singled up the middle and moved to second on the throw home that kept Gebauer at third. Mosinee pitcher Ava Busse got out of the jam by getting Paulson to hit a soft liner to Miller at second.

In the bottom of the sixth, Leonhardt led off with a single up the middle, pinch runner Rylee Hraby was bunted to second by Seidl and moved to third when rightfielder Maggie Woller caught a fly ball by Victoria Konieczny that almost got over her head. Huegli then hit a liner to center that Amber Gonzalez made a leaping snow-cone grab on and she somehow held on while tumbling to the ground.

Busse retired the Raiders in order in the seventh to get the complete-game win. She struck out six, walked only one and allowed four hits and no earned runs.

The Indians threw an early punch in the top of the first, scoring twice. Taelyn Jirschele singled, moved to third on a stolen base and a wild pitch and beat the throw home on Busse’s fielder’s choice ground ball to short. Alanna Bembenek, who had walked with one out, scored when courtesy runner Adeline Strejc stole second and an errant throw went into centerfield.

Martina Miller singled to lead off the second and got to third on an errant throw back to the infield. She scored on a sacrifice fly by Tristan Wicklund.

Medford’s defense was air tight in the last five innings, giving the Raiders plenty of chances to come back. They got one run back in the second when Mosinee threw away Konieczny’s two-out grounder and she scored on Huegli’s single to center. In the third, another throwing error on a Martha Miller bunt led to her scoring on a Paulson groundout.

Martha Miller struck out nine Indians, walked just one and allowed five hits and one earned run.

Allie Paulson nearly comes up with this foul ball during Friday’s win.