Posted on

Not much goes right for the Reds

Not much goes right for the Reds Not much goes right for the Reds

2ND PLACE: MINOCQUA 12, WHITTLESEY 2

A five-run rally in the top of the seventh inning broke open what had been a close game and propelled the Minocqua Wood Ducks to a 12-2 win over host Whittlesey in Saturday’s second-place game of the Dairyland League crossovers.

Short-handed with just 10 available players, Whittlesey was still within 3-1 before the big seventh inning. The Wood Ducks added two runs in each of the last two innings to build their 10-run lead and finish 8-5 in league games this summer.

Whittlesey finished 9-4 in league play and was sent to the Ellsworth regional following Tuesday’s Wisconsin Baseball Association seeding meeting. The Reds will play the Hudson River Rats and Eau Claire Rivermen Aug. 13-14. The top team in that pool will advance to the Aug. 19-21 WBA Finals, which are being hosted this year by the Mississippi Valley League at four different diamonds.

The highlight for Whittlesey was the six solid innings of relief pitching work put in by Nick Retterath before Minocqua finally got to him in its third at-bats against him. Retterath struck out 13 batters, walked only one and hit one. But he wound up allowing seven hits and six runs, four of which were earned.

The Wood Ducks took the lead in the top of the second inning. Left-hander Spike Alexander got off to a rough start by issuing three walks. Jacob Hodgdon singled in a run and Sam Johnson walked in another. That’s when Retterath came in and struck out three straight hitters to minimize the damage.

The Reds cut the deficit to 2-1 in the bottom half of the inning, loading the bases with one out on singles by Cade Alexander and Derek Nichols and a walk to Jon Laher. Alexander scored on Nick Meyer’s fielder’s choice and an error on the play kept the bases loaded. But Minocqua starter Trevor Rozczewski got Thomas Mildbrand to pop out on the infi eld and Retterath to fly out to kill the threat.

Johnson’s RBI single in the sixth put Minocqua up 3-1. Then the wheels fell off in the seventh.

Wally Augustyne singled, Peter Aerts was hit by a pitch and Nate Hopkins doubled to score Augustyne. Retterath struck out two hitters, but the second, Josh Randolph, reached on a third-strike wild pitch and Aerts scored. Johnson’s two-run, two-out single broke it open and the eighth run scored when the Reds couldn’t corral an infield pop-up hit by Max Toijala.

Mildbrand singled and scored on a Minocqua error on a ball hit by Ryan Kraschnewski in the bottom of the seventh, but that wasn’t nearly enough to stop Minocqua’s late-game momentum as the Ducks got four runs off Cade Alexander and the Reds in the last two innings.

Whittlesey had just five hits with Mildbrand going two for five. All of the hits came against Rozczewski, who went seven innings, struck out six, walked three and hit one. Neither of the runs against him were earned. Hopkins and Zach Peterson each pitched an inning in relief.

Johnson had two hits and four RBIs out of the ninth spot in the batting order for Minocqua, who will play the Tony Hayshakers and Ellsworth Hubbers in regional play at Ellsworth Aug. 12-14.

LATEST NEWS