MEDFORD SOFTBALL - Bats need to stay hot as Raiders hit a key stretch

MEDFORD SOFTBALL

The Medford Raiders took care of the Great Northern Conference’s bottom two teams in the last week. Now they’ll get their shots at two of the other contenders.

The Raiders moved into second place in the current GNC standings Tuesday with a dominant doubleheader sweep of Rhinelander 15-0 and 20-2. The first game lasted just three innings and the second game went four innings.

Now 4-1 in league play, the Raiders sit a game behind 5-0 Mosinee, the state’s secondranked Division 2 team. That’s who Medford plays today, Thursday, at 5 p.m. in Mosinee to start what figures to be the Raiders’ biggest week of the regular season.

Tomahawk visits Medford (10-4) Friday, then on Monday, Medford gets a return visit from Mosinee at 4 p.m. Lakeland, who is right with the Raiders at 5-2 in the GNC standings and beat Medford 3-1 back on April 10, comes to town for a 5 p.m. first pitch on Tuesday.

Since falling 11-1 to Division 4’s secondranked team Stevens Point Pacelli on April 15, Medford has averaged 15.5 runs in four GNC wins. Most of the offensive punch in game one Tuesday was provided by Zayleah Leonhardt, who went three for three with seven RBIs.

First, she doubled to deep leftfield in the bottom of the first inning, driving in Rylee Hraby and Finley Arndt, both of whom had drawn walks from Rhinelander’s starting pitcher Aleece Johnson.

In the second inning, Hraby walked and Arndt singled with two outs to bring up Leonhardt, who sent a bomb over the fence in left-center for a three-run homer and a 5-0 lead.

Medford blew the game wide open and ended it early with a 10-run bottom of the third. Addison Brahmer started it by getting to third on hit and throwing error. She scored on Chelsea Gebauer’s double. Gebauer eventually scored on a wild pitch as did Ava Hartl, who walked. Arndt had an RBI single, Leonhardt hit a two-run double that Johnson, now playing centerfield, couldn’t quite reach. Gebauer hit a two-run double before the game ended with her scoring on a wild pitch.

Medford outhit the Hodags 9-1. Gebauer was two for two with her thirdinning doubles and a first-inning walk. She drove in three. Arndt was two for two and scored three times.

Hraby struck out five, walked one and allowed one hit in the three-inning win.

Game two was never close as the Raiders got nine first-inning runs off Hodag pitcher Kendell Vanney and scored eight in the top of the fourth to finish it off.

The Raiders pummeled Vanney and reliever Neveah Anderson for 18 hits, including three apiece from Brahmer and Leonhardt and two each from Rylee Hraby, Arndt, Hartl and Grace Schmidtfranz.

The first eight Raiders reached base in the first. Hraby, Arndt and Leonhardt all singled to drive in the first run. After Tori Konieczny walked, Brahmer and Gebauer each singled in a run and Hartl’s single drove in two. Laney Hraby doubled to drive in one. With one out, Rylee Hraby doubled in two runs. The ninth run scored on a wild pitch.

Brahmer’s RBI double and Hartl’s RBI single highlighted a three-run third. After the Hodags got a two-run double by Lucy Lindner in the bottom of the third, Medford went back to bashing in the top of the fourth. Brahmer had an RBI single, Gebauer hit a sacrifice fly and another run scored on an error. Hartl drove in a run with a grounder, Kailyn Haenel singled in a run, Schmidtfranz doubled in one and Leonhardt singled in another.

Rylee Hraby struck out six, walked one and allowed three hits and two earned runs. Haenel struck out one in a scoreless fourth.

Medford 17, Pines 0

On Thursday, Rylee Hraby hit two triples and Leonhardt hit two doubles in Medford’s quick, 17-0 three-inning win over Northland Pines.

The Raiders scored three runs in the first and then put the 15-run rule into effect with a 14-run bottom of the second. The Eagles put two runners on against Haenel in the third, but Haenel struck out Izzy Stenschke to end the threat and finish it off.

Medford collected 11 hits, six off starter Nevaeh Harden-Lopez and five more off reliever Jordan Cain.

Hraby tripled in the bottom of the first, Arndt walked and both scored on Leonhardt’s first double of the game. Leonhardt later scored on an error.

The big second-inning rally featured a two-run triple by Hraby, who then scored on an Arndt single, a deep RBI double to the leftfield corner by Leonhardt and an RBI infield hit by Brahmer.

Fourteen of Medford’s runs were earned and the Raiders drew five walks.

Kayla Baumgartner was three for three. Leonhardt, Hraby and Arndt had two hits apiece.

Hraby allowed a hit, a walk and struck out four in two innings. Haenel allowed two hits with one strikeout in the third.

Medford’s game at Phillips Monday was canceled.

Addison Brahmer slides into third base without a contested throw as she starts a 10-run third-inning rally with an infield single and turns it into two extra bases on a throwing error during Medford’s 15-0 win over Rhinelander Tuesday. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS