For the Tomahawk Leader
ANTIGO – The Tomahawk Hatchet baseball team scored first, but was unable to keep pace with Antigo’s ability to answer, dropping their Thursday, April 29 game with the Red Robins by a score of 12-5.
The Hatchets got things going in the second inning, when Ryan Skees singled with two outs, driving in Garrett Nelson, who led off the inning with a single and advanced to second on a wild pitch.
Antigo evened things up at one in the bottom of the second inning when Logan Thomae doubled, scoring Cole Musolff, who reached on a 1-out walk.
Antigo pulled away for good with three runs in the third inning. Three consecutive ground ball singles set up and began the scoring, capped by Thomae’s sacrifice fly.
Tomahawk tallied three runs in the sixth inning to close the gap to 8-4. Skees drove in a run and Jake Kaminski hit a fly ball with the bases loaded that was dropped, plating two runs.
Antigo pulled away with four runs in the sixth inning. Dane Cornelius and Elliot Orgeman contributed to the burst, driving three of the four runs.
Eli Fleishman earned the victory on the mound for Antigo, covering six innings, allowing four runs on nine hits and striking out ten. Isaiah Scheffler took the loss for the Hatchets, walking seven and hitting a batter while giving up five hits and five runs over four innings of work.
Tomahawk racked up ten hits in the game. Skees, Nelson, Tyler Jablonski, and Marcus Matti each collected multiple hits for Hatchets.
“I thought there were a number of positive things that came from the game,” said head coach Scot Neu. “We caught and threw the ball well on defense and didn’t give up bases that way, we were aggressive at the plate and hit most balls on the ground or on a line. We combined to walk or hit 11 batters, of which five scored, along with striking out 12 times, a handful with runners in scoring position. Cutting those down will immediately improve our chances to be successful.”
The Hatchets were scheduled to face Antigo for a rematch at Tyler Kahle Memorial Field in Tomahawk on Friday, April 30.
Lakeland was set to visit Tomahawk on Monday, May 3. The Hatchets will travel to Lakeland on Thursday, May 6 for a 5 p.m. game before hosting Northland Pines for a doubleheader that kicks off at 11 a.m. on Saturday, May 8. On Tuesday, May 11, the Hatchets will travel to Medford for a 5 p.m. matchup.