SWEEP TIGHTENS UP THE RACE

DAIRYLAND LEAGUE LARGE

Reds get 20 hits in 12-3 win, rally for 5-4 win

The Whittlesey Reds amazingly found hole after hole Sunday with 19 singles and got one big blast, a threerun fifth-inning homer from Blaine Seidl, to complete a weekend sweep of the Everest Merchants with a 12-3 win at Mike Roiger Stadium and tighten up the race in the Dairyland Baseball League’s Large Division.

Four teams now have two losses apiece atop the division and Marshfield is right behind them with three as teams near the midway point of their 12-game schedules within the division.

With its two losses to Whittlesey, including a 5-4 home defeat on Friday, Everest, who came into the weekend unbeaten, fell to 4-2 and into a secondplace tie with Rhinelander, one-half game behind the 5-2 Rapids Redhawks. Whittlesey is now 3-2, a game ahead of fifth-place Marshfield.

Whittlesey did its major damage Sunday in two innings, the bottom of the second and the bottom of the fifth.

The second-inning rally turned a quick 1-0 deficit, which happened two batters into the game, into a 4-1 lead. It featured Whittlesey’s first five singles of the game. Cody Loertscher got the first one of the inning off Everest pitcher Heinrich Walder and that was followed by singles from Ben Meyer and Brandon Loertscher to tie the game. A high throw on a grounder hit by Seidl brought in the go-ahead run with two outs and extended the inning, allowing for RBI singles from Spike Alexander and Thomas Mildbrand.

Everest crept within 4-3 in the top of the fourth with a run-scoring double from Logan Langbehn and an RBI single from Roman Maguire, but Maguire was cut down by Reds catcher Cade Alexander while trying to steal second to end the rally.

In the bottom of the fifth, Whittlesey broke the game open.

Logan Baumgartner started it with a one-out single. Cody Loertscher reached on an error and back-to-back singles by Meyer and Cade Alexander each scored a run.

Meyer was eliminated at home plate on Brandon Loertscher’s fielder’s choice for the second out of the inning, but Walder and the Merchants did not escape the inning. Nate Retterath singled in another run and then Seidl, the Reds’ number-nine hitter in the order, hit a towering, no-doubt blast over the leftfield fence to widen the home team’s lead to 10-3. Whittlesey added two more singles off a new pitcher, but stranded those runners.

Everest did not seriously threaten the Reds after that. Baumgartner pitched the first six innings and got the win in his first start with Whittlesey. He allowed five hits and three runs, two of which were earned. Baumgartner struck out four, walked none and hit one. Tyler Thicke pitched two scoreless innings with two strikeouts and Brent Mueller walked one in the ninth. Mueller hit an RBI single in the eighth and Cade Alexander added a run-scoring groundout.

Spike Alexander, Mildbrand, Baumgartner, Cody Loertscher, Meyer and Mueller each had two of Whittlesey’s 20 hits. Cade Alexander was three for five.

Whittlesey is at Merrill Sunday for a 1:30 p.m. first pitch.

Reds 5, Merchants 4

On Friday, a three-run rally in the top of the eighth inning pushed Whittlesey to its 5-4 win over the Merchants.

Everest broke a 2-2 tie with two runs in the bottom of the sixth, but Whittlesey again just kept the line moving in its big eighth inning.

Meyer singled and Seidl doubled. Meyer was out at the plate on Nate Retterath’s fielder’s choice but an error brought in a run. After Mildbrand’s two-out single loaded the bases, Jeff Kraschnewski hit a two-run double to put Whittlesey in front, where it stayed.

The Reds took a 2-1 lead in the fourth on Cade Alexander’s sacrifice fly and an additional unearned run.

Spike Alexander and Mildbrand had two hits each.