Whittlesey rallies from 5-0 deficit to sweep Wood Ducks

DAIRYLAND LEAGUE LARGE

The Whittlesey Reds let a couple of early scoring chances get away Sunday afternoon, but they jumped on their chances late and stole a 6-5 win over Minocqua to sweep a Dairyland League doubleheader at Mike Roiger Stadium.

Jeff Kraschnewski walked it off by singling in Ty Metz with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to cap Whittlesey’s comeback from a 5-0, eighth-inning deficit.

Until their five-run eighth-inning uprising, the Reds hadn’t scored since the fourth inning of their 4-0 game-one win earlier in the day.

With the sweep, Whittlesey improved to 5-2 in the Dairyland League’s Large Division and sits in second place behind the 7-2 Rapids Redhawks, who beat visiting Marshfield 3-1 Friday in a game that was scoreless going into the bottom of the eighth. Rapids is 5-1 in games decided by two runs or less.

Rhinelander is a half-game behind the Reds at 5-3 after its 3-1 win over Merrill Sunday. Everest is also a half-game back at 4-2.

Energized in game two by their eighthinning rally, the Reds got a scoreless inning with two strikeouts from Metz in the top of the ninth to have the chance to win it in the bottom half.

Metz singled to left with one out and stole second when Blaine Seidl struck out swinging for out number two. Nick Meyer won a lengthy at-bat against Minocqua pitcher Peter Aerts by walking. Kraschnewski, after falling behind 0-2, worked his way back into the count and eventually got one to hit and pulled a sharp grounder through the hole on the left side to win it.

Whittlesey left the bases loaded in the first and third innings and fell behind 1-0 in the fourth on a sacrifice fly by Austin Samanske. Aerts made it 3-0 in the fifth by lining a shot just over the leftfield fence for a two-run homer. The Wood Ducks (2-7) seemingly gave themselves insurance by scoring twice in the top of the eighth.

Instead, the visitors saw Whittlesey get back in it quite quickly in the bottom half. Spike Alexander singled and moved to second on a wild pitch. Cade Alexander walked and Thomas Mildbrand’s double to the leftfield corner drove in the first run. Metz went the opposite way, drilling a ground-rule double to the rightfield corner to score two. Seidl beat out an infield hit and then errors on consecutive bouncers hit by Meyer and Kraschnewski scored runs to tie it with still no one out.

Minocqua got out of the jam by doubling Kraschnewski off first on a shoestring catch in the outfield on a ball hit by Cody Loertscher and a fielder’s choice hit by Cade Alexander with the bases loaded. But it only delayed Whittlesey taking the lead.

Keegan McJoynt threw four scoreless innings for Minocqua before giving way to Aerts, who had allowed just two hits and a walk in three innings before faltering in the eighth. Brandon Loertscher went the first five innings for Whittlesey, while Spike Alexander and Brent Mueller got the Reds through the eighth.

Cody Loertscher was three for five, and Metz and Meyer both went two for five.

Nick Retterath threw eight strong innings to lead Whittlesey in the opener. He struck out 12 Wood Ducks, walked three and allowed only three hits.

The Reds did their offensive damage with a pair of runs in the second and two more in the fourth. Zach Haynes singled and Seidl walked and an error on a ball hit by Mildbrand allowed them to score. Walks and a key error factored into the two-run fourth.

Samanske took the loss for Minocqua. Whittlesey is at Marshfield for a 1:30 p.m. start on Saturday in the rescheduled date of a June 11 postponement.