ships too and Baumgartner and ….

ships too and Baumgartner and Metz were about as good as it gets in the GNC as Medford’s starters.

“I just worked out a lot, which helped, and I pitched a lot in the summer so that really helped me come into the year strong. And I grew,” Metz said. “I was a little nervous in the first couple games I pitched but then I settled in. I think we’re really confident. I think we can go into any game and we have a very good chance of winning with our pitching.”

“I’m sure plenty of teams would die for that,” Searles said. “They would love to have two pitchers like that.”

Medford finished the regular season 22-4 after beating Stratford, Marshfield and Pittsville in non-conference play. The goal now is to make a deep run in the WIAA Division 2 tournament. The second-seeded Raiders open Tuesday by hosting a GNC rival, either 10th-seeded Rhinelander or seventh-seeded Antigo, at 5 p.m. in a regional semifinal. A win would give Medford a home regional final the next day, most likely against third-seeded West Salem, but sixth-seeded Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau can’t be ruled out. Mosinee is the one-seed, but Medford wouldn’t see the Indians until the June 6 sectional at Altoona.

“These guys find ways to win games,” Hraby said. “They play together and pick each other up. So many important parts and pieces on this team that make it so successful.

“The playoffs will be tough,” he added. “We are looking to win the first game and go from there.”

“It’s a whole new season starting right now,” Baumgartner said. “We just have to keep it rolling. We’ll find out who we play and just do our thing and hopefully it turns out.”

Medford 7, Pittsville 2

In a late addition to the schedule, the Raiders were able to get one more home game in Tuesday and won a battle between 20-win squads, 7-2 over Pittsville. The Panthers fell to 20-5 with the loss.

Medford jumped ahead 3-0 in the bottom of the first. After pulling a potential three-run homer just foul, Weissmiller settled for a two-run single and his courtesy runner, Wilkins, scored on a two-out double by Metz. Metz coaxed a comebacker from Pittsville’s Sam Bowden to start a double play in the top of the second to help get him out of a bases-loaded, noout jam. The Raiders then extended their lead to 5-0 with an unearned run in the third and an RBI single from Dietzman in the fifth that knocked in Baumgartner.

Pittsville turned three hits and a walk into two runs in the top of the sixth, but Hraby’s two-run homer in the bottom half put it away.

Medford had 10 hits off three Pittsville pitchers. Weissmiller continued his lateseason tear by going three for four with two RBIs. Lissner and Baumgartner had two hits apiece.

“Braxton, Logan and Parker had big nights at the plate, being a big part of all of our big innings,” Justin Hraby said. “Tanner’s two-run homer deep to left-center gave us the tack-on runs we needed going into the seventh.”

Metz struck out five and walked five, but he allowed just two hits to keep Pittsville off the board in his four innings. Tanner Hraby struck out five, walked two and allowed five hits and two earned runs in three innings of work.

“Ty and Tanner did not have their best tonight, but found ways to make pitches to limit the Pittsville hitters to only two runs,” coach Hraby said.

Medford 5, Marshfield 2

On Monday, the Raiders got six strong innings from Baumgartner and ground out several lengthy at-bats in a 5-2 win at Marshfield.

The Raiders scored twice in the second and seventh innings to distance themselves from the 10-12 Tigers, but the go-ahead run broke a 2-2 tie in the fourth. Searles, who had reached on an error, scored on Hraby’s sacrifice fly.

Steliga and Lissner had RBI singles in the second to erase a 1-0 Tiger lead. Metz had an RBI groundout and Dietzman hustled home to score on a shallow sacrifice fly by Searles to rightfield in the seventh.

Medford outhit Marshfield 7-5 with Steliga going two for three out of the nine-spot and Weissmiller going two for four out of the clean-up spot.

“We saw around 160 pitches,” coach Hraby said. “We had a lot of really good at-bats where we worked the count or were aggressive early and hit the ball hard. We had a lot of balls at them and some that were hit deep, homers at Raider Field, that were caught.”

Baumgartner struck out four, walked three and allowed five hits and one earned run in his final pre-tournament start. Hraby pitched the seventh and, after a one-out error, induced a double-play ball to end the game.

Medford 4, Stratford 3

The Raiders hit the 20-win mark for 2023 on Friday with a 4-3 non-conference win at Stratford. Medford scored three times in the second inning and, after the Tigers chipped away and tied it with single runs in their next three at-bats, the Raiders got the go-ahead run in the top of the fifth on Weissmiller’s sacrifice fly.

Metz got the win, going five innings in his start. He held Stratford to just two hits and one earned run. He struck out seven and walked four. Hraby got a twoinning save. He allowed a one-out double to Jack Tubbs in the seventh, but a shallow fly ball to center and a grounder to second stranded the potential tying run at second. Hraby struck out two hitters in the sixth.

The Raiders had seven hits off Stratford lefty Braeden Schueller, who went the distance. Baumgartner and Eckert had two hits each.

Medford’s second-inning rally started with Schueller walking Dietzman, who stole second. With one out, Metz singled hard to left, then Eckert got a bouncer just through the left side to score Dietzman. An error on a Steliga grounder loaded the bases. Two runs scored when Stratford couldn’t turn a double play on Hraby’s ground ball.

Hraby walked, was bunted to second by Searles, went to third on Baumgartner’s single and scored what wound up being the winning run on Weissmiller’s fly ball to right in the fifth.

“This was a grinder type of a game,” Justin Hraby said. “We weren’t sharp, but we made some plays and pitches to get us out of jams. Offensively we were good enough to scratch out some runs on a tough night to hit. Ty and Tanner did a nice job on the mound and held a good offensive team to three runs.”