By Nick Beversdorf
Reporter
Merrill varsity baseball defeated Rhinelander yesterday with a final score of 7-1. Merrill generated nine hits and committed no errors. The Bluejays played a pretty complete game, making hits when needed and keeping Rhinelander off the bases.
Merrill started off strong with two runs in the first inning, starting with Ryan Golisch driving in Trevor Asmundsen with a grounder to second and then later Drew Hoff would drive in Tyler Belfiori with a sacrifice fly. The top of the third would see another Merrill run from Hoff, courtesy of Jared Schmeltzer’s line drive to left.
Rhinelander would get their one and only run at the bottom of the third from a sacrifice fly. Merrill tacked on two more runs in the fourth, one from Chris Kanitz courtesy of Asmundsen’s line drive to center and the other from Asmundsen himself courtesy of Belfiori’s triple to right field.
Merrill would get their last two runs of the game in the sixth. Asmundsen scored the first run off an error by the Rhinelander pitcher and later Belfiori scored off Golisch’s line drive to left.
Asmundsen and Belfiori were hot at the plate. Asmundesn had two hits, three runs, one RBI, three walks and three stolen bases while Belfiori had one hit, two runs, one RBI, two walks and a triple. Other top hitters include Hoff (1H, 1R, 1RBI, 2BB, double), Golisch (1H, 2RBI, double) and Schmeltzer (2H, 1RBI, double).
Kyle Juhlke pitched the first four innings and Trey Seubert pitched the last two of the game. Juhlke struck out one, walked seven, allowed two hits and one earned run. Seubert struck out one, walked one and allowed one hit with no runs.
The fielding effort was lead by Belfiori with five putouts. Other fielders include Golisch with four putouts and an assist, Asmundsen and Schmeltzer with three putouts and an assist each, Dylan Anderson with three putouts, and both Hoff and Dan Duginski with a putout each.
“They did a great job of keeping Rhinelander off the bases and when they got in trouble, pitched their way out of it,” comments head coach Shawn Schultz. “The defense was solid. We played with a lot of confidence. Offensively, Trevor got us started right away and we had some real timely hits along the way.”