Raiders in position to clinch repeat GNC championship

MEDFORD SOFTBALL

A second straight Great Northern Conference championship –– the program’s first repeat since a three-peat (2006-08) at the end of the Lumberjack Conference days –– was within the Medford softball team’s grasp at mid-week.

A 17-0, four-inning win Tuesday at Rhinelander as well as last Wednesday’s thrilling 3-2 win at Antigo put the Raiders at 9-1 in GNC play with two games left, one game ahead of 8-2 Mosinee and Antigo. Medford hosted last-place Rhinelander in a rematch Wednesday where a win would’ve clinched at least a tie for the title.

The key game to clinch the outright title is today, Thursday, when the Raiders host Mosinee at 5 p.m.

Tuesday’s win was the 12th in a row for the now 15-2 Raiders and was a solid start to a stretch they will have to play without standout pitcher Martha Miler, who pulled a hamstring Saturday in Thorp and won’t play this week. Her goal, according to head coach Virgil Berndt, is to be ready for WIAA Division 2 post-season play, which starts May 24.

In the meantime, the Raiders should be just fine with Laurissa Klapatauskas in the circle. The senior extended her scoreless streak to nine innings in two games with a solid effort Tuesday. She struck out five, walked one and allowed just two hits in Medford’s lopsided win, that was keyed by a five-run first inning and a seven-run third.

“They’re beat up,” Berndt said of Rhinelander. “You can tell they are playing people in different positions. But the one thing I was impressed with is that no matter who we had playing, we didn’t play down to that level. A lot of times when we get into games like this, instead of 17-0, you have some errors, give up a couple of hits and it’s 17-8. But we didn’t do that.

“We also preached to the girls that we can’t overlook them (on Wednesday).”

The five-run first was highlighted by a run-scoring single from Klapatauskas and a two-run home run from Katie Brehm. Morgan Huegli’s RBI single was part of a two-run second.

The big third inning started with a base hit from Madisyn Pilgrim. Klapatauskas and Emma Brost had run-scoring singles, Rynn Ruesch drove in a run with a ground ball and several passed balls and wild pitches aided in the scoring as well. Brehm drove in a run with a walk and Brost plated the last run with a groundout in the three-run fourth.

Klapatauskas had three of Medford’s 11 hits and drove in three. Huegli was two for three, Pilgrim was two for two and Brost drove in two runs.

Following the two conference games, Medford is headed to Neillsville for a 5 p.m. non-conference play on Friday. A 5 p.m. home game with Phillips has been set for Monday and Berndt said a Tuesday non-conference game with Colby-Abbotsford also could be in the works.

WIAA post-season seeding took place Wednesday night. The Raiders and New London were the likely candidates fighting for the number-one seed in the halfbracket.

Medford 5, Merrill 3

In between the conference victories, Medford used early offense and 18 strikeouts from Miller to defeat visiting Mer- rill 5-3 Friday in non-conference play.

The Raiders built a 5-0 lead through five innings but had to hold on as Merrill made a late push. Unlike last year’s sectional semifinal however, the Blue Jays’ late rally was not enough.

Medford outhit Merrill 9-6, getting five of those hits from Allie Paulson (three for four) and Miller (two for three) at the top of the order. Those two worked quickly to get Medford on the board in the first with Miller singling, stealing second and scoring on Paulson’s base hit.

The Raiders put up a three-spot in the second and seemed to be headed for a lopsided victory, but Merrill’s Addison Schmeltzer and her defense silenced Medford for the most part after that to give the Blue Jays a chance. Brehm and Hope Faude started Medford’s secondinning rally with singles. With two outs, Brehm scored on a wild pitch, Miller belted a triple to score Faude and Paulson doubled in Miller. Paulson singled and eventually scored on a wild pitch in the fifth for Medford’s last run.

Laney Zuelsdorff, given a reprieve after the Raiders couldn’t come up with a foul pop-up, hit a two-out RBI single to put Merrill on the board in the sixth. The Jays made things interesting in the seventh when Lexi Ollhoff drew a leadoff walk and Sophie Wendorf singled, with an error in the outfield putting the runners on second and third. They scored on passed balls, one of which came on a third strike.

Miller walked three in her completegame effort. Schmeltzer struck out three and walked two in six innings for Merrill, who got two hits apiece from Wendorf and Dani Korman.

Medford 3, Antigo 2

The Raiders almost paid for letting a golden scoring opportunity get away in the top of the seventh, but Milou Van den Boogard’s clutch single with two outs in the eighth brought home pinch runner Katie Lybert with the winning run in a thrilling 3-2, extra-inning victory at Antigo on May 4.

The victory, coupled with a 4-3 win at Mosinee two days earlier, put Medford in prime position to repeat as GNC champions and avenged the Raiders’ 3-1 loss to Antigo in the league opener back on April 19.

Just like the first contest, runs and hits were hard to get against Miller and Red Robin senior Sam Swartz.

Medford got the first two early. Ruesch walked to lead off the second, moved up two bases on a sacrifice by Makala Ulrich and a groundout by Brehm. She scored on a clutch single to deep short by Faude. In the third, Miller reached on a one-out bunt, stole second and scored when Antigo dropped a two-out fly ball to center by Ruesch.

Miller set the first nine Robins down in order but the hosts got on the board in the fourth when Makala Beck drew a leadoff walk, got bunted to second by Laura Burkhart and scored on Swartz’s two-out double to the fence in right-center.

Miller again settled in, retiring seven straight batters, including four by strikeout. The Raiders had their chance to break it open in the seventh, loading the bases with one out, but Swartz got Klapatauskas and Ruesch to hit back-to-back grounders to shortstop Lily Weix, resulting in forceouts.

Down to their last out, the Red Robins sent the game to extra innings when Burt beat out an infield hit to drive in Burkhart, who had led off the inning with a base hit.

The Raiders answered in the eighth, starting with a one-out walk drawn by Brehm. Huegli was hit by a pitch with two down, then Van den Boogard, Medford’s exchange student from the Netherlands, dropped a single into right-center to easily score Lybert. Antigo got a twoout runner on an error in the bottom half, but Miller recorded her 12th and final strikeout to end it.

Medford had six hits off Swartz by six different players. She struck out seven Raiders, walked five and hit one. Miller allowed three hits and walked one.

Medford’s Laurissa Klapatauskas delivers a strike during the team’s 17-0 win over-Rhinelander Tuesday in the Hodag Dome. The senior allowed just two hits and struck out five in four innings.BOB MAINHARDT/NORTHWOODS RIVER NEWS