Medford evens score with T-Birds, hoped for same with Mosinee

The Medford Raiders split the first two games in a three-day softball gauntlet to start the week. Staying in the Great Northern Conference’s title chase likely depends on how they did in the third game Wednesday.

A much-needed 3-0 home win over Lakeland Tuesday at least kept the Raiders in the conversation as the chase starts to turn toward the home stretch. Maybe more importantly in head coach Virgil Berndt’s view, it gave the Raiders some WIAA tournament seeding leverage down the road as Medford avenged a 3-1 loss Lakeland gave them back on April 10.

The win, combined with a 3-1 loss to league-leading Mosinee on Monday, left Medford at 6-2 in GNC play heading into a Wednesday rematch at Mosinee, in the rescheduled date of a Thursday postponement. Mosinee is 7-0 in the GNC after beating Tomahawk Tuesday 18-3. Antigo slid back into the mix at 5-2 after sweeping a doubleheader with Rhinelander Tuesday while Lakeland fell to 5-3 in league play and 11-6 overall after Tuesday’s loss.

Medford improved to 12-5 behind another strong pitching outing from junior Rylee Hraby and some small ball against Lakeland and its standout pitcher Saylor Timmerman that moved runners around the bases in the first, third and sixth innings.

Both teams had just four hits in the pitcher’s duel. Two Lakeland errors were big as Medford took advantage of both for two unearned runs against Timmerman, who struck out 12 and walked two.

Lakeland, meanwhile, had only two serious threats offensively, but the Raiders shut both down. First, Lakeland had runners on second and third with two outs in the top of the first following a single by Karlin Williams and a throwing error on a ball hit by Rayna Hella. But Hraby ended the inning with her third strikeout.

In the bottom half, Hraby walked, moved to second on a passed ball, went to third on Finley Arndt’s groundout to the right side and scored on Zayleah Leonhardt’s single up the middle.

In the third, Arndt reached on a oneout infield single, stole two bases and scored on an errant throw from the catcher on the second of those two steals.

Lakeland’s other big chance came in the top of the sixth. Lani Frisch singled and Williams walked to start the inning. Hella, who had the big hit in Lakeland’s win over Medford in April, then hit a bouncer that Medford third baseman Ruthie Steinman fielded right at the bag. She stepped on it and threw across the diamond to Tori Konieczny for a double play. Hraby got Moriah Louis to then fly out to Arndt in centerfield to end the inning.

The Raiders then got an insurance run in the bottom half with Addison Brahmer beating out an infield hit, stealing second and scoring when Lakeland booted a grounder hit by Chelsea Gebauer.

Hraby also struck out 12 batters and walked two. Leonhardt had two of Medford’s four singles.

After the Mosinee matchup, Medford has a couple days off before heading to the Gilman-Thorp Slamfest on Saturday. The Raiders will face Edgar at 10 a.m. and Grantsburg at 2 p.m. in Gilman. The Raiders travel to Tomahawk Tuesday and to Antigo on May 15 in GNC play.

Mosinee 3, Medford 1

Weather-induced postponements meant GNC heavyweight contenders Medford and Mosinee didn’t meet for the first time this season until Monday. The game was worth the wait as pitchers Rylee Hraby and Ava Busse and the defenses kept this a low-scoring affair won by the visiting Indians.

Coming in undefeated in GNC play and still ranked second in the state in Division 2, Mosinee scored all three of its runs in the top of the second inning, keyed by a two-run homer from catcher Emily Verhasselt, which turned out to be the big swing of the game.

Medford outhit the Indians 6-4, but couldn’t get one more big hit in the second and fourth innings when it had its best chances to put up a crooked number.

Both teams left a runner on the base in the first inning. Peyton Allen led off Mosinee’s top of the second with a single to shallow rightfield. Megan Treu followed with a bunt that Medford threw away for the game’s only error. Allen scored and Treu got all the way to third. Verhasselt then sent her drive over the centerfield fence for a 3-0 lead.

Hraby settled in after that and Mosinee only put two more runners on base one of which, Treu in the seventh, was caught stealing. Hraby struck out four hitters and walked only one. She held two of the GNC’s most dangerous batters atop Mosinee’s batting order, Taelyn and Paetyn Jirschele hitless.

Medford threatened with one out in the bottom of the second when Gebauer singled and Ava Hartl drove a double to the gap in deep right-center. Laney Hraby lined out to rightfield, but Medford was unable to get a proper tag-up opportunity and Busse got a strikeout to put up a zero.

The Raiders did get on the board in the fifth when Brahmer slapped a single that dropped into open space behind second base. She stole second, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on Hartl’s sacrifice fly to centerfield. Laney Hraby followed with a single but got no further on the bases.

The Raiders went down in order in the fifth and sixth. Grace Schmidtfranz gave them a glimmer of hope with a pinch-hit, two-out single in the seventh. But Busse won a battle of All-GNC players by getting Rylee Hraby to pop up for the final out.

Arndt had Medford’s other hit, a thirdinning single. Busse struck out five Raiders and walked one.

Raiders 7, Hatchets 0

On Friday, Rylee Hraby struck out 15 batters in a two-hit shutout and Leonhardt stayed hot at the plate with five runs batted in as Medford beat visiting Tomahawk 7-0 in GNC play.

Hraby worked around four walks and singles in the third and fourth innings to get the shutout.

With her three-for-four day, Leonhardt completed a stretch of four games where she went 11 for 13 with six doubles, a homer and 17 runs batted in.

“I feel pretty good at the plate,” Leonhardt said after the win. “I’m just trying to go up and make contact with the ball and that’s working pretty well for me.”

Leonhardt’s first hit came in the third inning. Her single drove in Rylee Hraby, who had led off the inning by reaching on an error. She went to second on Finley Arndt’s groundout.

In the fifth, Rylee Hraby led off with a walk, but was forced out at second on Arndt’s grounder. Arndt stole second and scored on Leonhardt’s double. After an infield hit from Tori Konieczny, Brahmer’s infield hit drove in Leonhardt to make it 30.

Kailyn Haenel came off the bench to start Medford’s clinching sixth-inning rally with a one-out single. Hraby doubled to the gap in right-center and Arndt was hit by a pitch to load the bases for Leonhardt, certainly not the situation freshman pitcher Camryn Kraklow wanted to be in.

Leonhardt fouled off four pitches before finally driving a shot to deep centerfield to score all three runners. Konieczny followed with a base hit to left that scored Leonhardt with the game’s last run.

“Contact. That’s the main thing I’m thinking,” Leonhardt said of being at the plate with a chance to drive in runs. She added that at-bat was “definitely nerve wracking.”

Konieczny and Brahmer each had two of Medford’s 10 hits. Kraklow finished with two strikeouts and two walks issued in six innings. One of Medford’s runs was unearned.

After the win, Leonhardt said Medford was looking forward to its big three-game stretch against Mosinee and Lakeland this week.

“We definitely have some big competition coming up,” she said. “We’re working hard in practice and we’ll be ready for those games.”

Medford first baseman Tori Konieczny is ready for a potential pickoff throw from catcher Zayleah Leonhardt during the sixth inning of Friday’s 7-0 win over Tomahawk. Courtesy runner Abi Micke is the Hatchets’ base runner. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS