MEDFORD BASEBALL - Raiders steal one late from Hatchets, rally late to beatWest

MEDFORD BASEBALL

The Medford Raiders’ call for a squeeze bunt in the bottom of the seventh inning Monday didn’t go as planned, but in the end, it couldn’t have worked out any better.

Down 4-3 to Tomahawk and with one run already in and base runners on second and third during the last-inning rally, head coach Chandler Schmidt gave freshman Restyn Kraschnewski the bunt sign. Senior Parker Lissner was the runner at third, carrying the tying run.

Lissner broke for home and got a tremendous jump. Kraschnewski missed the bunt, which allowed Lissner to complete his steal of home plate. Sawyer Elsner swiped third and scored the winning run three pitches later when Kraschnewski, still down 0-2 in the count, bounced a single past Tomahawk shortstop Cash Olsen.

“I was faking (stealing) the whole game,” Lissner said. “Right there I just decided screw it. We gotta win. It was a squeeze, but I was like if he gets it down fine and I’m good. If he fouls it off or something, I’m fine. Resty was smart to pull back.”

“Lissner’s a senior,” Schmidt said. “He’s been an excellent leader all year. He’s played a lot of baseball his whole life. You’ve gotta trust your athletes like that. You have to give them opportunities to just go out and play.”

Whether Kraschnewski knew it or not, Lissner got such a running start that putting the ball in play actually might have been the worst thing that could have happened.

“I got the bunt sign and missed it but Parker was in there safe, so that was all that mattered,” he said moments after becoming the second freshman to walk off a win for Medford this season. “Then I just knew I had to put the ball in play, so that’s what I did.”

“I like to let my guys just be athletes, play loose,” Schmidt said. “We’ve bought into the aggressive mindset. Once we saw that pitcher was in a long windup, we said now it’s time to get the ball rolling. That puts more pressure on the pitcher than our hitters.”

The win was Medford’s second lategame victory of the week and the Raiders hope it’s the start of some late-season momentum with WIAA Division 2 tournament play set to start in two weeks. Now 5-4 in the Great Northern Conference and 6-7 overall, the Raiders aren’t quite mathematically eliminated from a GNC title tie yet, but their focus is saving their best baseball for the end.

“We need to just keep our energy up,” Lissner said. “Our energy hasn’t always been the best we need, but we’re getting better at it and we’re getting more pumped up as the season goes on.”

Tomahawk pitcher Brody Rigney, coming off a masterful 4-0 shutout win over Mosinee last week, held Medford in check through six innings. Tomahawk (46, 5-10) struck in the first inning on a twoout RBI single from Andrew Tollefson. Medford tied Charlie Gierl’s sacrifice fly in the fourth. The Hatchets regained the lead on a run-scoring wild pitch in the fifth. Medford countered with Hayden Strebig’s two-out RBI single that scored Lissner.

Strebig gave Medford 6.1 strong innings before reaching his pitch limit. He allowed only six hits. Two of Tomahawk’s four runs were earned. He struck out five and walked two. Conor Anderson got the last two outs and got his second relief win in four days.

“Strebs has been excellent all year,” Schmidt said. “I think Conor Anderson has come out of nowhere for us and has just been reliable. I’m very happy with where our arms are at. Strebs, every outing he gives us five, six quality innings.”

Tomahawk took its two-run lead in the sixth on a two-out single by Nicholas Arndt and an ensuing Raider error.

The Hatchets turned to Brayden Larson to try to finish it in the seventh, but he ran into immediate trouble with a single by Ryder Kraschnewski and an errant pickoff throw. Lissner singled him home. Larson got Evan Czarnezki to pop out, but he walked Strebig and Lissner and Elsner, the courtesy runner, stole their way into scoring position to set up the final heroics.

Medford finished with eight hits, including two each from Lissner, Strebig and Restyn Kraschnewski, who joined Will Wojcik as owners of walk-off hits this year.

“We need that,” Lissner said. “We need everybody stepping up. It doesn’t matter if you are coming off the bench or if you are always starting. You just have to hit.”

Medford is at Antigo today, Thursday, and is scheduled to play two at Adams-Friendship Saturday. The Raiders return home to close out the GNC schedule next week with Northland Pines on Monday and Rhinelander May 22 in 5 p.m. games.

Medford 8, West 4

Evan Wilkins ended the top of Friday’s sixth inning by throwing out a runner at home plate to keep the game tied, then he walked and stole a base to start a four-run rally in the bottom half that gave Medford an 8-4 non-conference win over Wausau West.

Two singles and a wild pitch put two West runners in scoring position for Marshal Helke, who, after an eight-pitch battle with Anderson, lifted a fly ball to Wilkins in shallow centerfield. Wilkins made the catch and threw to catcher Evan Czarnezki, who put the tag on Tony Iaffaldano well before Iaffaldano could get to home plate.

“With one out, I knew that I was going to have to make a play at home to keep this game tied and get out of the inning,” Wilkins said. “He hit me a soft liner and I just kept my footwork great and came through the ball and made a good strike home.”

Between Wilkins, Sam Hierlmeier and Gierl, Medford outfielders now have at least five outfield assists on outs at home plate this spring.

“We’ve had a few of those this year,” Wilkins said. “It’s been fun. We have trust in our arms. If the opportunity comes, we are not shy about trying to throw a guy out. Czar is doing a great job of putting tags on runners. There have been some crucial runs that we’ve thrown out at home.”

“We work on it almost every single day,” Schmidt said. “We break down the simple things. We start from the bottom up. Make sure your feet are right or it’s going to be hard to make a good throw. Field it out front so you have momentum, picking the right hops, there’s a lot that goes into it. Our outfielders have been doing a phenomenal job. That was a big throw by Wilkins. That was the breaking point in the game.”

As often happens in baseball, the guy who makes a big defensive play leads off the next half-inning and Wilkins drew a walk and did what the Raiders count on him to do, use his speed to get into scoring position. He stole second, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored the go-ahead run on Ryder Kraschnewski’s infield hit.

“I just knew I had to do my thing at the plate,” Wilkins said. “He threw me four straight balls and I then I had to do the rest on the base paths. That’s the greatest feeling being able to steal a bag and have a guy on second for Parker, Czar, Strebs, whoever comes behind me because I have confidence they’re going to get me in.”

Lissner singled, a run scored on a wild pitch, Strebig drew a one-out walk, a balk scored the third run of the inning and Nick Krause, who was three for four with three RBIs in the win, drove in the final run with a hit.

It was a back-and-forth game early with West scoring twice in the top of the first and Medford getting a sacrifice fly from Lissner in the bottom half. Krause doubled in a run in the second to bring the Raiders within 3-2 and Strebig’s RBI triple tied it at 3-3 in the third. Krause’s RBI single tied it again in the fifth.

Gierl pitched the first four innings. He allowed six hits and four runs, two of which were earned. He struck out two and walked two. Brody Paulson struck out one and allowed two hits in a scoreless fifth. Anderson covered the last two innings and struck out one while allowing three hits.

The win helped put a tough, walk-off loss to Lakeland four days earlier in the rearview mirror.

“It was a gut check tonight,” Schmidt said. “We talked all week about just having positive energy. Baseball is a game of failure. It’s just about thriving when you have success. The guys really ate it up this week and it showed on the field.”

“We needed one like that after dropping a few really tough ones in the conference,” Wilkins said. “Boost some guys, get some confidence back and get back on the winning side. We’ve got a lot of ball left. We need to get some momentum going into playoffs. Fix some little things and we’re right there. We have the guys to do it. We just have to put it all together.”

Medford’s Sawyer Elsner dives into first base, easily beating an attempted pickoff throw during Friday’s 8-4 win over Wausau West. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS