MEDFORD SOFTBALL - Win over Grantsburg highlights Slamfest; 2nd in GNC possible
MEDFORD SOFTBALL
While Tuesday’s game went the full seven innings, the outcome was decided quickly by the Medford softball team, who scored eight first-inning runs and cruised to a 12-1 win at Tomahawk.
Chelsea Gebauer and Grace Schmidtfranz homered, and Ruthie Steinman and Rylee Hraby tripled in the win. Hraby struck out 13 batters, walked only one and gave up five hits in six innings. With the win, Medford improved to 7-3 in the Great Northern Conference and 15-6 overall heading into a secondplace battle with Antigo today, Thursday, in Medford.
Antigo (12-6) comes into the 3:30 p.m. contest hot, having surged to 7-2 in GNC play, including a 4-3 win over league champion Mosinee on Thursday. The Red Robins finish league play with a doubleheader Monday with Northland Pines. Medford travels to face the winless Eagles Friday to close its GNC schedule.
Tuesday’s big first inning started with Hraby drawing a walk from Tomahawk’s freshman pitcher Camryn Kraklow. She moved to second on Finley Arndt’s groundout and scored on Zayleah Leonhardt’s single. After Tori Konieczny walked, Gebauer sent a Kraklow pitch over the leftfield fence for a three-run bomb and an early 4-0 lead.
Medford was just getting started in the inning. Schmidtfranz walked, Laney Hraby singled and both scored on Steinman’s triple to left-center. Rylee Hraby followed with another triple to score Steinman. Arndt’s single knocked in Hraby with the eighth run.
Schmidtfranz hit a solo homer to centerfield to make it 9-0 in the second. The offense cooled from there, but Tomahawk (3-8, 7-12) wasn’t able to generate any serious threat to the lead. The Hatchets only got a solo homer from number-nine hitter Ella Peissig in the fifth that made it 10-1 and kept the game from ending early. Medford scored twice in the seventh.
Rylee Hraby went three for three, drew two walks and scored three times. She doubled in the seventh. Leonhardt was two for three, and Gebauer was two for five. Kailyn Haenel pitched a scoreless seventh. Medford outhit Tomahawk 11-5.
Medford closes out the regular season next week with a road game Tuesday with a good Fall Creek squad and a newlyadded home game May 22 against Marathon that starts at 4:30 p.m.
2-0 at Gilman
Things didn’t play out quite how Medford envisioned at Saturday’s Gilman-Thorp Slamfest, but the Raiders still got the two wins they felt they would, beating Edgar and Grantsburg.
Grantsburg was the state’s top-ranked team in Division 3 going into the tournament, but three losses over two days knocked the Pirates (13-4) to second when the new rankings were released Tuesday.
Medford handled the Pirates 6-1 and never trailed while outhitting them 12-4. Grantsburg committed four errors and struck out 11 times against Rylee Hraby, who walked no one.
In the morning game, Medford jumped ahead 3-0 in the top of the first, but Edgar chipped away and tied the game at 3-3 in the bottom of the seventh. Medford scored twice in the top of the eighth and escaped a major jam in the bottom half to win 5-4.
Hraby stuck out 14 batters, walked none and allowed seven hits in that one. She also had the go-ahead two-run double in the top of the eighth. Hraby said the plan was to have her just pitch a couple of innings and hopefully rest her for the Grantsburg game. But plans changed and she wound up tossing all 15 innings for the day. With 25 strikeouts and no walks, she obviously got through it just fine.
“This was not the plan we thought, that’s for sure,” Hraby said. “We knew (Grantsburg) was going to be a good team coming in, so that win feels really good. We played really good as a team.”
The Raiders jumped ahead right off the bat against Grantsburg. Arndt hit a oneout single in the top of the first, stole second and scored on Konienczy’s single up the middle.
Steinman, the number-nine hitter, drove a double the opposite way to deep left-center to start the top of the third and scored on Arndt’s one-out double down the leftfield line. Arndt scored when Grantsburg botched a two-out grounder by Konieczny.
The Pirates got their only run on an inside-the-park homer by Abby Rombach in the bottom of the third. Medford got that run back in the fifth on Schmidtfranz’s sacrifice fly. The Raiders put it away in the seventh. Leonhardt reached on an error. Konieczny bunted for a hit and the throw got away, allowing courtesy runner Hadalye Ziehlke to score. Konieczny got to third on the play and eventually scored on Schmidtfranz’s hit.
Konieczny was three for four. Gebauer, Haenel and Arndt had two hits apiece.
Medford appeared headed to an easy win one-half inning into the Edgar game. Rylee Hraby’s double, three walks, an RBI fielder’s choice from Gebauer and Ava Hartl’s sacrifice fly gave the Raiders their quick 3-0 lead. But the Raiders stranded two runners in scoring position in that inning, left the bases loaded in the second and then, suddenly the bats went silent against Edgar pitcher Lucy Kolodzeij. Alyssa Kolano tripled in a run for Edgar in the fourth.
Things tightened in the sixth. Jorja Knetter started the inning by reaching on a three-base error and scored on Grasci Yonker’s sacrifice fly. Kolano then singled, but was thrown out by Steinman while trying to steal second.
Hraby started the bottom of the seventh with a strikeout, but she hit Ella Baumgartner with a pitch and a throwing error on Emery Borchardt’s bunt put runners on the corners. Kaiser’s grounder to short drove in the tying run, sending the game to extra innings.
Tournament rules stated extra innings started with a runner on second base. For Medford, that runner was Steinman. Kolodzeij got a pop-up and a strikeout, but Haenel drew a key walk and Hraby crushed a drive that one-hopped the leftfield fence to score both runners.
“I was just trying to adjust because she kept throwing me outside a lot in that game,” Hraby said. “I knew she was going to throw it again so I just trusted my hands and stayed back and tried driving it.”
Edgar quickly threatened again in its half. Brandi Halverson singled in a run on Medford softball
the first pitch. Hraby struck out Knetter, but Yonker with Halverson scooting to third. Yonker took second base to put the winning run in scoring position. But Hraby buckled down, getting Kolano to hit a comebacker that resulted in Halverson getting thrown out at home. Hraby struck out Alyson Kolano to finally end it.
“I knew I just had to throw strikes,” Hraby said. “I couldn’t walk any girls. I figured we’d make plays eventually since we hadn’t much in that game but I knew we could. I just had to trust the defense and we’d be fine.”
Hraby had three of Medford’s five hits. Arndt and Konieczny had the others. Kolodzeij struck out 10 Raiders and walked seven.
Mosinee 11, Medford 1
Two days after the Raiders held Mosinee to just four hits in a 3-1 loss, the Indians smacked four home runs among their 11 hits in an 11-1, five-inning win.
Allison Olynick was three for three with a double and three RBIs. James was three for four with three runs knocked in, drew two walks and scored three times. Stephens was two for three and Chaplinski was two for five with a three-run homer in the third and a two-run double. Mosinee’s Ava Busse threw a five-inning no-hitter for the Indians. She struck out one and walked one. Though it wasn’t official at the time, the Indians, in reality, sealed their second straight GNC championship with the victory.
Mosinee scored three runs in each of its first three atbats. Peyton Allen’s two-run homer capped the firstinning rally.
The Raiders got their run in the top of the second. Konieczny battled for a leadoff walk. With one out, Gebauer grounded to third. Mosinee’s Megan Treu tried to get the force out at second, but her throw sailed into right-center and Konieczny came all the way around to score.
But Emily Verhasselt led off the bottom half with a homer. Brooklyn Simonis followed with a single, took second on a wild pitch and scored on an error Briley Kaczor’s sacrifice bunt. Paetyn Jirschele knocked in Kaczor with a hit.
Trailing 6-1 through two and a half innings, Medford gave pitcher Rylee Hraby a breather as Haenel took over in the circle. She got Allen to fly out, but an error and a swinging bunt for a hit by Verhasselt put two on for Simonis, who belted a three-run bomb to left.
Paetyn Jirschele singled ahead of Addyson Henrich’s two-run homer in the fourth that put the 10-run rule into effect.
Mosinee finished with 11 hits, including two each by Paetyn Jirschele, Henrich, Verhasselt and Simonis Hraby allowed six hits and six runs, five of which were earned. She struck out three. Haenel allowed five hits and five runs, four of which were earned. She walked one.
Second baseman Laney Hraby traps a throw from the outfield during the eighth inning of Saturday’s 5-4 nail-biter with Edgar during the Gilman-Thorp Slamfest. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS
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