“Rhinehawks” win tournament championship
The Northwoods All-Star 14U baseball team won the championship game at the Tomah tournament July 28th. Since the team consists of 5 all-stars from Rhinelander and 6 from Tomahawk, with coaches from both Tomahawk and Rhinelander, the kids have coined the team the “Rhinehawks”.
The tournament started with round-robin pool play on Saturday, where the Northwoods team first faced Viroqua. Connor Cooper pitched in the 14-3 victory in 4 innings. Eric Grulke, Liam Rappley and Aaron Evans turned the 5-4-3 double play to end the game. Cole Feest went 2 for 2 with 4 RBI’s, Hunter Jones was 1 for 1, Josh Randolph 2 for 3, and Shawn Dirkx and Jake Ruid both went 1 for 2, Evans and Grulke both scored 5 runs on walks.
In the final game of pool play, Bryce Schickert pitched in the 1 hit, 10-0, shutout victory against Tomah. Sam Von Schrader was 2 for 2, Evans was 1 for 1 with 2 walks, Ruid was 1 for 1 with a walk and hit by pitch, Dirkx was 1 for 2 with an RBI double, and Rappley, Feest and Randolph also went 1 for 2 from the plate.
Earning the number 1 seed for single elimination on Sunday, the team faced #2 B bracket seed Black River Falls in the semi-finals round. The team took an early 8-3 lead, but Black River Falls battled back in the 5th inning, going up 11-10. Northwoods tied it up, 13-13 in the 6th, and scoreless 7th pushed the game into the 8th inning, where the team scored 5 more to pull off a tough 18-15 first round win. Randolph, Dirkx, Evans, Cooper and Schickert pitched with the Save going to Cooper and Schickert closed out in the bottom of the 8th. At the plate, Feest was 2 for 3 with a double, Randolph also went 2 for 3, Dirkx was 3 for 5 with 4 RBI’s and Evans also earned 4 RBI’s.
The championship game was played against B Bracket #1 seed Menomonie who took an early 2-0 lead in the 2nd inning. The Northwoods team rallied in the 5th after Schickert was hit by a pitch, Rappley advanced Shickert to second base, leading to base hit RBI’s from Jones, Grulke and Feest to take a 3-2 lead. Menomonee tied it up at 3-3 in the bottom of the 5th, and the game pushed to extra innings. In the top of the 8th, with 2 outs, Evans got a base hit single, followed by a Menomonie error on a ball hit by Randolph. Evans then scored on a base hit RBI from Ruid to take a 4-3 lead. In the bottom of the 8th, Menomonie gets the tying run on first with no outs, but the game ends as Feest throws 3 strike outs. Grulke and Rappley were both 1 for 2 and Evans, Dirkx, Jones and Feest went 1 for 3 in the Championship victory to end the 2015 baseball season.
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