POST 147 LEGION BASEBALL - ONE MORE SHOT AT IT
No other team in the six-team Class AA Minocqua regional could match Medford’s pitching depth and its Post 147 American Legion squad didn’t even need to use it all in blowing through the fourday tournament and earning its spot in this weekend’s Wisconsin Class AA state tournament in New London.
The regional championship was clinched Sunday morning with an 11-0, five-inning rout of the Rhinelander Post 7 Rebels. Post 147 went 4-0 in the double-elimination tournament, beating each of the other teams there except for Antigo.
State play starts Friday at noon against New Richmond in a first-round rematch from a year ago, a game Medford won 1-0 to start its 2024 run to the championship round.
“It’s awesome,” said Tanner Hraby, one of four 2024 high school graduates who are still age-eligible for the 19U team and came back this year to try to make another state run. “Obviously one of the first goals was to make it back again and now hopefully we can get to that championship game again and win.”
“I think it pushed us this year,” said JV Castillo, another of those 2024 grads who came back this summer. Hraby and Castillo were teammates this spring at UW-River Falls. “We want to go back, make it to that championship game and get it done this year.”
The regional championship was Medford’s third in a row and fourth in five years in Class AA play. Going back to Medford’s time in Class A and excluding the canceled 2020 season, Medford (13-4 this year) has now made a state tournament six of the past seven years.
Hraby got the pitching victory Sunday. He retired the first nine hitters he faced, got through the fourth inning while allowing just one hit and one walk in the fourth and then quickly went one-twothree through the fifth after Medford got three runs in the top half of the inning to put the 10-run rule into play.
“I felt really good,” Hraby said. “It was a good day. I was locating, throwing a lot of strikes. My off-speed stuff was big. Once I threw that early for strikes, I was doing good. There were a lot of plays made behind me too.”
Parker Lissner got the offense started with a one-out single off Rhinelander’s Abe Gretzinger in the top of the first inning. Payton Schreiber doubled. The Rebels went for the out at home on Castillo’s grounder, but Lissner beat the throw. After Jackson Blomberg, a 2024 Rib Lake grad, walked, Charlie Gierl lined a two-run single. Medford pulled off a double steal, putting the Rebels in a 4-0 hole before they had ever had an at-bat.
“It was a good day,” Lissner said. “Tanner pitched a really good game. We were hitting the ball well. When the middle of our lineup is hitting well, usually it’s a good day.”
The offense kept it rolling in the second. Hraby and Lissner started the inning with singles. Castillo’s hit scored Hraby, Lissner eventually scored on a wild pitch and Carson Carbaugh, the third of the 2024 graduates playing one more Legion season, singled in Castillo for a 7-0 lead. In the third, Hraby tripled to deep rightfield and was granted home plate when Rhinelander reliever Rowan Wiczek threw his glove at the ball after a throw got past third baseman Connor Rappley.
“Anybody in this lineup can hit,” Castillo said. “Our goal is just to get ahead early and just keep working from there, keep getting runs.”
The game appeared destined for at least six innings when Wiczek retired Medford’s first two hitters in the top of the fifth. But Lissner hit an infield single, Schreiber singled and Castillo was hit by a pitch to suddenly load the bases. Jackson Blomberg came through by looping a single to no-man’s land in rightfield to drive in two. Gierl’s single added one final insurance run.
“I thought we hit well (all weekend),” Hraby said. “I think that was the big piece. Since we were able to hit, we were able to save some pitching. We didn’t have to use a couple guys a game and I think that was big.”
Gierl got five relief outs behind Castillo in Medford’s first game Thursday. Other than that, starters accounted for all but one out the rest of the weekend.
Lissner was three for three and was hit by a pitch out of the second spot in the batting order. Schreiber and Gierl had two hits apiece.
“We had a lot of fun this weekend and I think we wanted to have another shot at (state) and another fun weekend together,” Lissner said.
A look ahead
The Class AA state tournament field has plenty of familiar teams. Six of the eight teams in this year’s field played in last year’s tournament in West Salem, including defending champion Seymour, who beat Medford twice during its undefeated run through last year’s double-elimination bracket.
New Richmond (10-5) went 1-2 in last year’s tournament and won the four-team Baldwin-Woodville regional over the weekend with a 3-0 record.
Medford will play either Seymour (142) or Beaver Dam (15-4) at either noon or 5 p.m. on Saturday. Beaver Dam is also back after a 2-2 showing at state last year.
The other side of the opening bracket has Bonduel facing Onalaska (16-7-1) at 5 p.m. Friday and Campbellsport playing New London at 8 p.m. New London has been to state the past two years and Onalaska was there last year, going 2-2, including a 3-2 loss to Medford in a semifinal elimination game.
Medford was 3-2 in last year’s tournament, falling 11-5 to Seymour in the second round and 3-2 in the championship round when it needed to win twice.
Taking an older, experienced team into the tournament for a second straight year, Post 147 sees itself as a contender.
“I think we have a lot of depth, so that’s going to help us big going through the state tournament,” Castillo said.
“I think we’ll be just fine,” Hraby said. “Last year we had a chance to win it all. I think we’ll compete this year for sure. I think if we hit, we’ll have no problem winning games.”
“We have a bunch of pitching too,” Lissner said. “We’re stacked with pitching.”
Medford 6, Eagle River 2
Post 147 reached the regional title round with a 6-2 win over Eagle River Post 464 on Saturday afternoon. Medford did trail briefly, but that 1-0 first-inning deficit was quickly erased with a three-run rally in the bottom of the inning.
Hayden Strebig efficiently pitched all seven innings, needing 94 pitches to get the complete-game win. He allowed just five hits, struck out four and walked two.
Jason Linn’s two-out single to center gave Eagle River its first-inning. Post 147 responded against big left-hander Jonathan Miller, the Great Northern Conference’s Co-Player of the Year this spring. Hraby singled and went to second on a passed ball. Lissner’s infield single put runners on the corners for Schreiber, who doubled to left-center to score Hraby. Lissner scored and Schreiber got to the third on a throwing error as Eagle River tried to nab Schreiber at second base.
After Castillo walked, he and Schreiber pulled off a double steal to score the third run of the inning.
Post 147 put it away with another threerun rally in the fourth. With two outs, Hraby doubled in Gierl and Lissner added a two-run single.
While Eagle River committed five errors, Medford turned in a couple of nice plays defensively that kept the opponents’ damage to a minimum. Centerfielder Evan Wilkins ran down a Griffin Beyer drive to left-center and made a lunging catch to end the inning with a runner on. Carbaugh, playing rightfield, made a perfect throw to third base on Ethan Miller’s RBI single in the sixth, easily cutting down Linn, who tried to go from first to third on the hit.
Lissner was two for three and Hraby was two for four and Schreiber had the only other hit for Post 147. Miller went 5.2 innings for Eagle River, allowing all six runs, but just two were earned. He struck out eight and walked three. Eagle River played again after the loss and was eliminated with a 13-0 loss to Rhinelander.
Medford 9, Merrill 1
Medford also trailed early in Friday’s second-round game with Merrill’s Post 46 squad, but that changed on Hraby’s tworun third-inning homer. He hit another and Schreiber also hit a solo shot at Post 147 cruised to a 9-1 win, eliminating Merrill from the tournament.
Hraby went four for five with three extra-base hits and Schreiber was four for four as Medford banged out 12 hits against Merrill pitchers Cam Wallin and Isaak Clapper. Schreiber came within an out of a complete game, reaching his 105-pitch limit with two outs in the seventh. He gave up just four hits and one earned run while striking out five and walking five. Nick Krause got the last out with a strikeout.
Wallin drove in Merrill’s only run with a bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the first, the only inning Schreiber struggled somewhat. He walked three and allowed a hit after getting the first two outs on ground balls.
The game swung in the top of the third. Wilkins was hit by a pitch and then was along for the ride when Hraby crushed a no-doubter into the trees beyond the leftfield fence to put Medford up 2-1. Schreiber hit a one-out double, Castillo reached on an error and, with two outs, Gierl came up with a big two-run single to open up a 4-1 lead.
“I was seeing the ball well,” Hraby said. “I got my pitch. He threw a lot of sliders, I saw about five in that at-bat and then he finally got one down the middle.”
Lissner singled in a run and Castillo added a sacrifice fly in the fourth. Hraby’s solo homer down the leftfield line made it 7-1 to start the sixth. After Lissner single, Schreiber unloaded his no-doubt bomb to left-center.
Merrill’s only other real threat came in the fourth when it loaded the bases with one out. Schreiber got Kory Page to hit a comebacker that turned into a 1-2-3 double play.
Post 147 didn’t fully capitalize on chances to break open Thursday’s tournament opener early, but eventually, a six-run top of the sixth inning did the trick in an 11-0 win over the host 89ers.
Castillo and Gierl combined on a two-hit shutout. Castillo went 4.1 innings, allowing both hits in the first inning. He struck out six. Gierl got the last five outs, working out of a bases-loaded situation in the sixth to preserve the shutout. He struck out one, walked one and hit two.
Offensively, Medford had 10 hits, including two apiece from Schreiber and Sam Hierlmeier. Each of them hit a double. Gierl also hit two singles and had two RBIs.
Minocqua starter Max Keuer walked three of Medford’s first five hitters leading to a two-run first inning. Three more walks led to a tworun second as well. Post 147 scored only one run over the next three frames, but then came the sixth when Minocqua finally collapsed.
Schreiber reached on a one-out error. Ryder Kraschnewski walked and Schreiber scored on an error on a ball hit by Blomberg. Gierl, Carbaugh and Hierlmeier hit consecutive RBI singles to centerfield to make it 9-0. Hraby’s two-run double to deep left-center capped the scoring.
