D1 stretch ends with DH sweep; Mosinee week is here
MEDFORD BASEBALL
Caleb Guden and Steve Hraby combined for a three-hit shutout in game one, and the Raiders rebounded from an early five-run deficit in game two to earn a doubleheader sweep Saturday over visiting Appleton West, a team coached by 1989 Medford graduate Mitch Krug.
The non-conference sweep on a windy and somewhat wet day at Raider Field gave the Raiders some needed momentum heading into a big week of Great Northern Conference games with Mosinee. Game one, scheduled for Tuesday in Medford, was postponed to Wednesday due to the early-week cold weather. Game two is set for Friday in Mosinee. In between, Medford is scheduled to host Marshfield today, Thursday at 5 p.m.
Medford and Mosinee are thought to be the top two contenders for the GNC title.
The sweep of the Terrors on Saturday put Medford at 9-3 for the season and snapped a three-game losing skid, all to Division 1 competition.
In the 5-0 game-one win, the Raiders’ big inning was a four-run third that turned out to be more than enough for the pitchers and defense.
“Offensively, on a tough day to hit, we found different ways to score runs,” Medford head coach Justin Hraby said. “This team has shown the ability to score runs in a number of different ways. This is something that is so important to being successful at the varsity level.”
Tanner Hraby started the big inning with a single, stole second and scored on Parker Lissner’s single. Caleb Guden followed with a base hit. Appleton West starter Garrett Beschta gave himself a chance to get out of the inning with no further damage by striking out Logan Baumgartner and Aiden Gardner, but Braxton Weissmiller worked him for a walk to load the bases for Max Dietzman, who lined a clutch single to left-center to score Lissner and Guden. An errant throw on a ball hit by Brigham Kelley brought in Weissmiller with the fourth run.
Weissmiller’s single in the fourth drove in Lissner with the final run of the game.
Guden struck out three and allowed an infield hit and a walk in three innings in his first start since April 5. Steve Hraby was excellent after that, allowing two hits and two walks while striking out one. The defense turned double plays in the fourth and sixth innings. Hraby actually started the twin killing in the sixth, knocking down a low liner hit right back at him by Isaac Milhaupt.
“Steve and Caleb did a nice job of pounding the zone and making pitches when they needed to,” coach Hraby said. “It was great to get Caleb back out there again. He looked sharp and will be ready to go as we enter a big week playing Mosinee and Marshfield.”
Medford had 11 hits against three West pitchers, including two each by the top four hitters in the batting order –– Tanner Hraby, Lissner, Guden and Baumgartner.
Game two wasn’t as clean, but three shutout relief innings from Tanner Hraby and two one-run innings from Ty Metz bought the offense the time it needed to rebound from the five-spot Appleton West put up in the top of the second inning. The Terrors got those runs on five hits against Medford starter Seth Mudgett with three of the runs being earned. Hunter Cook’s two-run double was the key hit.
The Raiders started creeping back into it with Weissmiller’s RBI groundout in the bottom of the inning. They got two more in the third with Dietzman scoring on a passed ball and Guden singling in Tanner Hraby with two outs.
After Metz wiggled out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the top of the fourth with just one run allowed, the Raiders crept within one in the bottom half. Oneout singles by Weissmiller and Lissner put runners on the corners for Kelley, who drove in courtesy runner Colby Elsner with a groundout. Lissner later scored on an errant pickoff throw.
A defensive miscue also loomed large in the bottom of the fifth when a dropped third strike by Appleton West led to Guden and Baumgartner scoring the tying and go-ahead runs to score for Medford when a throw back to home plate got away.
Tanner Hraby got credit for the win. He didn’t strike anyone out in his three innings, but he allowed just one hit and two walks. Metz got out of the jam in the fourth with minimal damage and, a diving stop by Guden, Medford’s shortstop, ended a Terrors’ threat in the third. Metz allowed four hits and two walks but just one run and struck out two.
Mudgett had some tough luck as the Terrors found seemingly every hole in the second inning. He struck out two, walked one and allowed six hits.
Seven Raiders had one hit apiece against three Appleton West pitchers.
SPASH 11, Medford 6
In non-conference play Thursday, visiting Stevens Point jumped ahead with a four-run second-inning rally and then put the game away with a five-run fifth that included three home runs in an 11-6 win over Medford.
The Raiders knew their pitching would need to be spot-on in order to hold down a formidable lineup from the Panthers, a definite Wisconsin Valley Conference contender. But neither Baumgartner nor Kelley in relief found great command of their curveballs and Stevens Point hitters teed off while sitting on fastballs.
The Raiders did limit the damage by turning four double plays defensively.
“When you play against a team like SPASH and you can’t get your off-speed pitches over for strikes, they are going to hit,” coach Hraby said. “That they did, until Tanner came in and junked them. That gave us a chance to scratch back into the game. Our infield defense bailed us out of some jams. Without those double plays we saved some big innings.”
The Panthers outhit Medford 14-12 as the Raiders made things interesting late by closing the gap on what was an 11-1 deficit.
Point’s first six batters reached in the second inning. Ben Raczek singled, Riley Warzynski doubled and Lucca Weinkauf singled to left drive in Raczek. Gavin Przybelski was hit by a pitch to load the bases and Kaleb Mayer got an easy run batted in with a walk. Weinkauf scored on an error on a bouncer hit by Benett Klish. Baumgartner struck out Kale Roth, but a fielder’s choice hit by Noah Marschke drove in the fourth run of the inning.
After the Panthers scored single runs in the third and fourth innings, Medford got on the board in the bottom of the fourth on a single to left by Lissner. That was the third single of the inning and scored Baumgartner from second.
But Stevens Point had a big answer in the top of the fifth. Weinkauf walked with one out. Kelley nearly got out of the inning, but Medford couldn’t quite turn yet another double play. Deacan Koback took advantage by curling a majestic drive around the fair pole in left for a two-run homer. Klish blooped a single to right and came all the way around on three wild pitches to make it 9-1. Roth and Marschke then yanked back-to-back solo homers to right.
Medford took advantage of two fielding miscues and two walks in a three-run bottom half of the inning that included a two-run double by Baumgartner that came a few feet short of being a grand slam.
Singles by Dietzman, Mudgett and Guden and an errant throw on a stolen base brought in two more Raider runs in the sixth.
Baumgartner, Mudgett, Lissner and Weissmiller had two hits apiece for the Raiders. Guden and Baumgartner had two RBIs.
Baumgartner struck out two and walked one while allowing seven hits and five runs, four of which were earned in 2.1 innings. Kelley allowed six earned runs and six hits while striking out two and walking two in 2.1 innings. Tanner Hraby went 2.1 scoreless innings. He struck out one and allowed one hit.
Kaden Thauer went four innings and got the win for Point. He allowed an earned run on five hits and struck out one.
“We pounded out 12 hits against some pretty good pitching,” Hraby said. “A few breaks here and there and that could have amounted to more runs.”
Medford leftfielder Colby Elsner ends the top of the fifth inning in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader with Appleton West by catching this fly ball hit by Dylan Scheibe. Elsner had three putouts in the 5-0 win. The Raiders also took game two 7-6.MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS
