DAIRYLAND BASEBALL - Blowout turns tight late, but Reds hang on to beat Monsters

What seemed like a comfortable lead for the Whittlesey Reds became anything but as the top of the ninth inning progressed Sunday afternoon, but thanks to two rare fielder’s choice assists from centerfield, they did escape with a 10-8 win over the Rhinelander River Monsters.

The Reds improved to 2-1 in Large Division play in Dairyland League baseball thanks to two big innings early that put them in front 9-0 and the two big throws from centerfielder Nick Meyer in the ninth.

After Rhinelander had closed within 10-6 on a three-run homer by Tyler Blomdahl in the ninth, the River Monsters got base hits from Casey Gerber and Lucas O’Brien. The Reds made a pitching switch from Parker Lissner to Spike Alexander, who was greeted by an apparent line drive single up the middle from Rhinelander’s Casey Palubicki. But Gerber had to hold for a moment to make sure the liner dropped and that gave Meyer enough time to fire a strike to Logan Baumgartner at third and get the forceout.

Ben Quade then walked to load the bases for Easton Senoraske, who blooped a ball into shallow centerfield. Again, the runners had to hold to see if the ball would drop and Meyer quickly got the ball to Ryder Kraschnewski at second base to get the force on Quade and the second out of the inning. A run did score on the play.

Sam Schneider then singled to left, making it 10-8 and bringing the go-ahead run to the plate in Martin Hoger, who popped out to Kraschnewski at second base to finally end it.

Early on, few would have guessed the game would get that close.

The Reds sent nine men to the plate and scored five runs in the bottom of the second. Baumgartner singled, Cade Alexander walked and Darren Leonhard bunted for a hit when no one covered first base to quickly load the bases. Zach Haynes smacked a sacrifice fly to deep center to get the Reds on the board. Brent Mueller singled to re-load the bases and Cody Loertscher drove in a run while grounding out to first.

Meyer then followed with a towering drive to left that cleared the fence by plenty for a three-run homer.

The Reds sent nine men to the plate again in the third against O’Brien and came away with three more runs. Cade Alexander reached on a one-out error, Leonhard singled and Haynes drove in Ryder Kraschnewski, running for Alexander, with a base hit. Mueller singled to set up Loertscher’s two-run single for an 8-0 lead.

In the fourth, Haynes doubled in a run for his third hit of the day.

Nick Retterath got the win, throwing five shutout innings for Whittlesey. He allowed one hit, an infield single by Palubicki in the fourth, struck out three and walked two. The River Monsters got on the board in the sixth with Schneider’s RBI single and a run-scoring wild pitch by Restyn Kraschnewski, who threw two innings and allowed two runs, two hits and two walks while striking out one.

Whittlesey got an unearned run in the seventh and Rhinelander countered with an RBI single from Senoraske in the eighth, which was pitched by Ryder Kraschnewski.

Lissner started the ninth, but was lifted after giving up five hits in a row. He was charged with four earned runs.

Whittlesey had 14 hits, led by Haynes, who was three for three with two RBIs, and Meyer who was two for five and his three-run homer. Lissner, Baumgartner, Leonhard and Mueller also had two hits each.

O’Brien went seven innings for Rhinelander. He gave up 13 hits and all 10 runs, eight of which were earned. He struck out one and walked two. Palubicki and Schneider each had two of Rhinelander’s 10 hits.

Whittlesey was also planning to play at Everest on Saturday, but that game did not happen. The Reds are back in league action this Sunday hosting the Minocqua Wood Ducks in a 1 p.m. doubleheader.

Rest washed out

The rest of the area games in the Dairyland League’s Small Division were washed out by the weekend’s rainy weather, including Westboro at Rib Lake Friday, Interwald at Medford Saturday and Spirit at Pittsville Sunday.

In the only other Large Division game played Sunday, Wisconsin Rapids (3-0) defeated Merrill (2-3) by a score of 10-2.

Rib Lake is at Medford this Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Spirit is at Interwald and Tomahawk is at Westboro at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday.