Medford returns to Class AA as post-season starts
POST 147 LEGION BASEBALL
Medford’s Post 147 American Legion baseball team was awarded the top seed in the Great Northern Legion Conference’s end-of-the-season tournament after a July 14 matchup with co-leading Rhinelander was rained out.
But Medford’s stay in the tournament was a short one thanks to an 11-3 loss to fourth-seeded Mosinee on Friday evening.
Eli Miland mowed through Medford’s lineup, striking out eight and walking none in the complete-game victory. The visitors banged out 14 hits and took a 7-0 lead midway through the fourth inning to coast into Monday’s league championship game, which it lost at Rhinelander 5-4.
Mosinee got to Friday’s semifinal by routing fifth-seeded Northwoods 10-2 in Thursday’s first round. Third-seeded Minocqua edged sixth-seeded Tomahawk 4-3. Second-seeded Rhinelander beat Minocqua 3-2 in Friday’s other semifinal.
Each of Mosinee’s starters had at least one hit. Tanner Unertl went three for five out of the second spot in the batting order. Trenton Dorn was two for two with two doubles and two walks and Barnes Bunkelman was two for three with a pair of RBIs. Miland added to his fine outing by going two for five.
Max Dietzman was two for three for Medford’s young squad, which was only nine deep for Friday’s game.
Davin Stoffel’s two-run single followed hits by Bunkelman and Dorn and put Mosinee on the board in the top of the second. Medford’s defense made two plays to prevent the rally from being even bigger. Second baseman Tucker Kraemer threw out Stoffel at the plate on a fielder’s choice for the second out of the inning and catcher Aiden Gardner picked Sawyer Holtz off third base for the third out.
But after Miland set Medford down in order in the bottom half, Mosinee was right back at it in the top of the third. An error and a Miland single set up Seann Bryant’s RBI double. Bunkelman added a sacrifice fly to make it 4-0.
In the fourth, Miland blooped a double down the leftfield line to score Trevor Garski. Bryant added a sacrifice fly and a third run scored on a two-out error.
Tanner Hraby blooped a double into shallow right, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on Gardner’s groundout to get Medford on the board in the bottom half. Brigham Kelley and Dietzman singled to continue the rally. Kraemer reached on an infield single and Kelley scored when Mosinee threw the ball away on the play.
Seth Mudgett doubled and eventually scored on a throwing error to pull Medford within 8-3 in the fifth, but Mosinee tacked on three more runs in the sixth to put it away. Bunkelman and Dorn hit back-to-back doubles and Holtz added an RBI single.
Mudgett started for Medford and went four innings, allowing nine hits and seven runs, five of which were earned. He struck out one and walked one. Kelley finished up, allowing five hits and four runs, three of which were earned in his three innings. He struck out four and walked three.
Medford committed five errors in the loss.
Post 147 was scheduled to host Chequamegon Wednesday in a pair of five-inning games.
Regional weekend
Medford begins Class AA post-season play this weekend at the Rhinelander regional. A state qualifier in Class A in 2018 and 2019, Medford moved up a class level this season.
Medford plays Minocqua at 5:30 p.m. on Friday to kick off the five-team, double- elimination tournament. Antigo faces Rhinelander at 8 p.m.
The Medford-Minocqua winner will play Merrill at 11 a.m. on Saturday and the winner of that game will advance to a 4 p.m. contest on Saturday against the Antigo/Rhinelander winner. The Medford- Minocqua loser will play at 1:30 p.m. Saturday against the Antigo/Rhinelander loser.
Play continues into Sunday and Monday (see schedule box).
As the Class AA state tournament host, Antigo is guaranteed a state berth, so the second-place team in the Rhinelander regional would also qualify if Antigo wins it.
Junior Legion
Medford’s Junior Legion team made a nice run over the weekend in the 16U state tournament, going 2-2 in the Merrill subregional.
After a 7-5 loss to D.C. Everest on Thursday, the team rebounded with a 5-1 win over Wisconsin Rapids Friday in an elimination game. Rapids easily swept a doubleheader at Medford early in the season.
Medford then eliminated Merrill 13-2 in six innings to advance to a rematch with Everest on Saturday. D.C. Everest took out Medford 14-2 in five innings to advance to the regional championship best-of-three series with River Falls that was played Sunday and Monday in Merrill. River Falls took game one 3-1, D.C. Everest answered 20-15 and then River Falls took the final game 9-5.
