MEDFORD BASEBALL - Raiders get nothing against Pirates’ Dobberstein, Hodags’ Rappley

MEDFORD BASEBALL

The Medford baseball team gave itself a Memorial Day challenge, traveling south to face Division 2’s seventh-ranked team. The Pewaukee Pirates held the Raiders to two hits and took advantage of any mistake Medford made defensively in a 70 final.

The Pirates only had six hits, but Medford committed five errors, issued six walks, hit six batters and two of its five base runners were caught for outs on the base paths giving the Raiders no chance to beat a team of Pewaukee’s caliber.

Pewaukee senior Owen Dobberstein showed a strong combination of velocity and movement on his curve balls to rack up 12 strikeouts. He walked two in a complete-game effort.

Pewaukee scored all the runs it would need in the bottom of the first. Medford starter Hayden Strebig walked leadoff hitter Drew Dobberstein and Jackson Servais reached on an infield single. Owen Dobberstein put down a sacrifice bunt that was thrown away to score Drew Dobberstein. Servais scored on a wild pitch and an infield single by George Ratelis scored Owen Dobberstein. Strebig did get Landon Witek to ground into a double play to limit the damage.

Charlie Gierl pitched two scoreless innings for Medford, but the Pirates broke the game open in the fourth. Conor Anderson walked Hudson Bremberger, who stole second and took third on an errant throw. He scored on a misplayed ball hit by Drew Dobberstein. Servais was hit by a pitch. Both runners advanced on a sacrifice bunt by Owen Dobberstein and both scored on a well-executed squeeze bunt that Ratelis beat out for a base hit.

JonDavid Jacobs added a sacrifice fly in the sixth.

Evan Wilkins led off the game for Medford with an infield hit but was picked off. Gierl had the other hit, singling up the middle in the sixth. Sam Hierlmeier and Strebig drew the walks. Parker Lissner was the only Raider to reach second base on a fourth-inning error, but he was easily caught stealing when Pewaukee faked an errant pickoff throw.

Strebig pitched one inning, allowing two hits, two walks and three runs, two of which were earned. Gierl struck out one, walked one, hit one and allowed a hit. In 2.1 innings, Anderson allowed three hits and four runs, three of which were earned. He walked one, struck out one and hit four. Brody Paulson got the last two outs, walking one and hitting one.

Pewaukee, the one-seed in its southeast Wisconsin half-sectional, improved to 19-- 6 at the time.

Hodags 8, Raiders 0

Medford’s late run toward a potential Great Northern Conference title share was halted emphatically Thursday by Rhinelander sophomore pitcher Connor Rappley, who threw a perfect game in the Hodags’ 8-0 win at Raider Field. The Raiders needed a win and a Mosinee loss at Lakeland to earn the title share. Neither happened as Mosinee won its game 14-1 and won the outright title with a 9-3 GNC record.

Medford and Rhinelander tied for second at 7-5.

Rappley carved up the Raiders on 84 pitches, 67 for strikes. Pounding the strike zone, he got the Raiders swinging early in counts and they rarely made solid contact. The closest Medford came to a hit was in the fifth inning when Hierlmeier bounced one to right side, but Hodag second baseman Seth Nofftz hustled to cut it off and made the short throw to first baseman Connor Bishop to get Hierlmeier by a step.

Amazingly, Rappley went to three-ball counts on just two hitters, getting Wilkins to pop out on the first at-bat of the game and coming back to strikeout Will Wojcik in the sixth. He struck out six.

Gierl mowed through Rhinelander on just seven pitches in the first, but he ran into trouble in the second, walking Rowan Wiczek and hitting Rappley to start it. Gierl struck out Bishop but both runners advanced on a wild-pitch third strike. Abe Gretzinger pulled an infield single to the left side to score Wiczek, Vince White’s sacrifice fly scored Rappley and Tyler Chariton fisted a 1-2 pitch up the middle to score Gretzinger to make it 3-0.

Bishop’s two-out, two-run double put Medford in a 5-0 hole in the third. Dylan Vanderbunt hit a sacrifice fly in the fourth and a two-run fifth put it away, highlighted by another RBI double from Bishop and Gretzinger’s run-scoring single.

Gierl went four innings, allowing six runs, five earned, on five hits, two walks and three strikeouts. Anderson covered two innings, allowing two runs and four hits while striking out two. Nick Krause pitched a scoreless seventh.

Christian Preuss reaches high to get to this ball during number-four singles play at Thursday’s Great Northern Conference tennis tournament. He finished third in the flight. BRETT LABORE/THE LAKELAND TIMES

Rib Lake rightfielder Blake Henderson settles under a ball hit by Medford’s Evan Czarnezki during Tuesday’s sixth inning. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS