It was a tough week for Merrill’s American Legion Post 46 baseball team.
The squad was super-busy with seven games in the span of seven days, but only managed to win one of the games, their finale in last weekend’s Merrill Invitational with Cottage Grove.
“Even though we lost three out of four games, I think the kids played great,” Merrill manager John Annis said. “Again, just a couple of innings every game came back to bite us.
“As a whole we’re starting to change the little things that we’ve been talking about all year.
“It seemed like they had a fun time at the ballpark all weekend, also seeing two teams we don’t see all the time.”
Cottage Grove fit that bill, and the teams played a doozy of a game Sunday before Post 46 pulled it out 4-3 in the 8th inning on Tom Zuelsdorff’s RBI single to left center.
Merrill had answered a pair of 3rd-inning runs with one in the bottom of the inning, although two grounders killed a bases-loaded threat. The Grove went up 3-1 in the 4th, but Cordova doubled and scored in the 5th on a Luke Golisch grounder. Cordova doubled again in the bottom of the 7th to score Colton Bloch and send the game to extras. Consecutive walks to Garrett Pagel, Grunenwald and Tim Jahnke set the stage for Zuelsdorff’s one-out, walk-off single.
“(Tom)’s been hitting the ball hard, but half the time it’s at somebody or the other team makes a great play,” Annis said.
Cordova (2-3, 2-2B, 2 R) and Zuelsdorff (2-4) paced the 8-hit offense.
Friday’s opener featured RSW, a team Merrill had seen and beaten twice this summer. But the Schofield squad pulled this one out 5-2 largely due to a 4-run 5th that took back the lead Merrill had grabbed at 2-1 in the top of the inning.
Post 46 only managed 3 hits in the game, from Ben Anderson (2-3) and Ty Grunenwald (1-1, 2 W).
Kyle Rajek (6 H, 2 W, 4 K, 5 R in 4-2/3 I) lost and Alex Cordova (2 K in 1-1/3 I) relieved.
Rhinelander used a 4-run 2nd to power a 7-5 win early Saturday. The locals had taken a 3-1 edge in the 2nd despite leaving the bases loaded, and Rhinelander made them pay, pushing it to 7-3 by the 4th. Merrill got 2 back in the 6th but it wasn’t enough.
Rajek (2-3), Michael Koppelman (2-4, 2B) and Cordova (1-3, 2B) paced the 8-hit attack.
Holmen, one of the top teams in the state, pulled out a 7-0 win later Saturday, jumping out 5-0 by the 2nd. Merrill managed 4 hits, while Holmen had 12, including 5 doubles.
Jump start
A 10-run 2nd put Wis. Rapids in charge of Monday’s 15-5 road loss.
“It was disappointing to lose that way because we beat them the last time we played them,” Annis said. “A couple of errors and not throwing strikes are the biggest things.”
Post 46 came up with 3 in the 4th and 2 in the 5th, but Rapids put the 10-run-rule into play with 2 in the 5th.
Koppelman (2-3), Anderson (2-4) and Pagel (1-3, 2B) helped Merrill to 7 hits.
Doubled up
Merrill lost 10-5 to Wausau last Tuesday despite matching Wausau’s 4-run 1st. But a 3-run 5th and 2-run 7th more than compensated for Merrill’s 1-run 7th.
Wausau ended up with 17 hits, while Merrill had 7, including a 2-2 day by Golisch. Cordova and Golisch doubled.
Roll me in Plover
Post 46 actually held a 1-0 lead after 1 complete, but talented Plover scored 6 in the 2nd and 15 in the 4th to run away with it 21-1.
Plover had 14 hits, including a grand slam in the 4th by Roman, and took 4 walks.