WIAA DIV. 2 BASEBALL - Strebig’s pitching, key hits carry Medford in regional opener

The Medford Raiders opened WIAA Division 2 tournament baseball play Thursday and took care of a familiar foe, Antigo, 6-2 in the regional quarterfinal round.

Medford took a 3-1 lead through three innings and withstood a major threat from the Red Robins in the sixth before then putting the game away with a three-run rally in the bottom half.

The 12th-seeded Red Robins lost their third game of the season to their Great Northern Conference rivals and finished the year 5-13.

“I feel like we played great as a team,” starting pitcher Hayden Strebig said. “We had energy coming out at the start and we kept it pretty clean.”

Strebig pitched six innings, allowing five hits, one earned run and two walks while striking out two. Charlie Gierl finished it up with a scoreless seventh, walking two and striking out one.

“He’s Mr. Consistent right now,” head coach Chandler Schmidt said of Strebig. “I’m going to knock on wood saying that. He has a good demeanor on the mound. He’s very steady. He’s got his breaker that’s really been his best pitch all year and he locates. I’m proud of him.”

Antigo scored first, getting a two-out RBI single from Caleb Vandenlangenberg in the top of the second inning. Medford came back with an unearned run in the bottom half as Antigo threw the ball away on a double steal by Evan Czarnezki and Strebig, who had both singled off Antigo starter Tate Unsinn.

In the third, Evan Wilkins drew a leadoff walk, stole second and scored on a line-drive single to center by Parker Lissner. With two outs, Strebig’s ground ball was mishandled, allowing Lissner to score.

Antigo’s threat in the sixth started with Medford’s only error of the game, which came on a ground ball hit by Preston Knapkavage. Luke Bastle singled to center and Zach Bula dumped a single into leftfield to load the bases with no outs.

Strebig said in that situation, he kept it simple.

“Don’t mess up. Throw strikes and hopefully they can’t hit it,” he said.

He got the first big out when Gordon Lucht flew out to Nick Krause in shallow rightfield. It was not deep enough to attempt sending Knapkavage home. He did score on Luke Binversie’s high bounce out to Lissner at short, but now there were two outs. Vandenlangenberg hit a hard grounder, but Will Wojcik made the pick and throw from third base to end the inning.

“They helped us out. We got some weak contact,” Schmidt said. “But Will Wojcik made an outstanding play. That’s a hard play I don’t care who’s there. That’s a freshman stepping up.”

With one out in the bottom of the inning, Restyn Kraschnewski hit a ball Antigo shortstop Colton Thomae couldn’t handle. He stole second base and, with two outs, scored when Vandenlangenberg was unable to corral a hot shot to third hit by Sam Hierlmeier. Gierl then crushed a long triple over the head of Knapkavage in centerfield to score Hierlmeier. Wilkins walked and a balk by reliever Scott Hagerty scored Gierl.

“Our seniors are stepping up and that’s what we need,” Schmidt said. “Sam had an unreal at-bat and then he ended up hitting one hard at the third baseman, forcing him to make a play. Then Chuck absolutely crushed that triple. That’s just seniors stepping up for you. That’s all that you can ask for.”

Medford had just four hits against Unsinn, who went 5.2 innings, striking out one and walking three. Only one of Medford’s runs was earned. But with only one error and four walks issued by its pitchers, that was enough to advance to the regional semifinal.

“It was good,” Strebig said. “Throw strikes and trust the team behind you.”

“We talked about how there’s a difference between regular-season baseball and playoff baseball,” Schmidt said. “It’s the team that really has the most passion, the team that has more confidence going into it are usually the ones that come out on top. I think the boys made the plays. I don’t remember having hardly any mistakes. I was proud of the boys’ effort.”

The win sent Medford to a regional semifinal at fourth-seeded Merrill (12-11). The game was postponed by rain to Wednesday, after the deadline for this week’s issue of The Star News.

Wednesday’s winner advances to the WIAA Division 2 regional final, also pushed back a day now to today, Thursday. Eighth-seeded Northland Pines (13-11) or top-seeded Hayward (16-8) will await the winner today.

Sectional play is set for Tuesday in Merrill. The regional champion will play in the 10 a.m. semifinal. The title game is set for 4 p.m.