A great baseball season comes to an end

After defeating Seymour in the sectional semi-final in a 10 a.m. game June 22, the Hodags had to wait until 4 p.m. that day to play Denmark for a chance to appear at the WIAA Division 2 state tournament.

The Hodags got on the board first after Isaac Bixby walked in the first inning. He eventually was at third base and a wild pitch allowed him to score. The Hodags had runners on base in several innings but could not get the key hit to drive in any more runs.

Rhinelander’s defense and pitching shut down the top team in the state until the sixth inning. Denmark opened the sixth with a double and then a fly ball to a windy left field was misjudged by Jacksen Smith, resulting in runners on second and third with no outs. Denmark put three runs in the book and then shut down the Hodags to take the 3-1 win and a berth in this week’s state tournament.  Photos by Bob Mainhardt

Rhinelander Rebels

The Hodag baseball team came off their sectional loss Tuesday and it was back to the diamond for the Legion season as the Rhinelander Rebels played the team from Mosinee. The Rebels were without a few players from Wednesday but added a couple JV players to the mix.

The Rebels opened the game with Quinn Lamers on the mound and held the opponent scoreless in the first but put two on the scoreboard to have an early 2-0 lead.

Mosinee would score one run in the 2nd and 3rd innings while keeping the Rebels quiet until the 4th when the Rebels again took the lead scoring a run for a 3-2 lead going into the 5th. Mosinee scored two in the 5th to take the lead, but the Rebels responded by scoring four in the bottom of the inning to lead 7-4. Mosinee would score a run in each of the last two innings while the Rebels would score two in the 6th inning for the 9-6 win. Photos by Bob Mainhardt