The Rhinelander Daily News - Online news and information for the Rhinelander, Wisconsin region

Vern Hollister - Correspondent

Cold, snow, rain, mixed rain and snow, sleet, slush, wind gusts, wind chill. Sounds like a weather report, and it is; the only way to report on pre-season baseball and softball as spring refuses to lose its grip on the Northwoods. Teams have managed to play a game or two, traveling and changing dates while they hoped weather and warmth were better farther south. Northern Lakes teams have visited Coleman, Crivitz, Wausaukee and Peshtigo; but even those venues haven't been fulfilling weatherwise. The best that can be said is that they played some games and got onto a field.

"We practiced in the parking lot. That's about it," Crandon senior captain and pitcher Leelyn VanZile said. Last Tuesday, VanZile started against Wausaukee in his second game of the year.

By the third inning, when VanZile shivered off the mound in a planned short stint, the rain had begun. Kole McGeshick took his place to garner some experience, and he now can claim rain experience and the knowledge that hitters have the advantage in inclement weather. That inning, the Rangers hammered the ball and picked up six runs. The Cards trailed 9-2 when the game was called because of a progressively harder rain than the third inning start. The cold didn't much influence the game being stopped. It was finger-numbing chilly before the first pitch.

On a nearby field, the Lady Cards met the Lady Rangers. This was their season opener, and almost Crandon's first time outside.

"Last week we were able to get out behind the elementary school a little bit," coach Kyle Palmer said, "and in the parking lot."

Wausaukee can be called more southerly, but the only weather advantage was a bare field. Palmer said the Rangers scored two runs before they had a hit, as Crandon had to adjust from maple and tar to dirt. After the rain began, the Cardinals scored six runs in the top of the fifth inning.

"Jacee Anderson hit a three-run triple in the fifth when we scored all our runs," Palmer said.

The Rangers retaliated with five runs in the bottom half of the inning and led 7-6 when the umpires called the game because of the rain's increasing intensity. The Cards and Rangers got in a game, however; and Crandon players saw a playing field.

Goodman-Pembine baseballers played in a marathon, on and on into the evening hours against Coleman the week before. With the teams tied 13-13, the game was called because of darkness, mind you. No rain, no snow, just cold to the bone weather. Patriots coach Jeremiah Fisk likened the game to a comedy of errors. The next day, he said the chill had still not worked its way out of his body.

Fisk needed to be wise, keep his fingers warm, like Rebels coach Dean Muthig. What had once been optimistically scheduled as a home game ended up being played in Crivitz instead of Laona where left field was a snowbanked wonder. Their game occurred the same day Crandon was in Wausaukee. Coach Muthig wore two pairs of gloves, his fingers toasty warm. He said his players chuckled at him for doing so, but he was the one who withstood the cold. Luckily, the game was officially a home game. In the bottom of the sixth, Jim Ambrosius singled, stole second, reached third, and sledded home on a passed ball. His dash through the flurries put the Rebels on top, 6-5. The umpires stopped play.

"By then," Muthig said, "it was snowing so hard you couldn't see the ball. By the time we got to the dugout, the field was snow-covered. The conditions were awful, about as bad as it can get. I've never played in worst conditions."

And Muthig is a guy who played pro ball in New York state.

The trip to Crivitz was the last time he saw softball coach Don Huettl alive. "I just saw him on the bus going there. Our A.D. came in and told me the next morning. I was struck with disbelief. You hear of it happening in other places, but not here."

See Outside./2B

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The Huettl-coached team, along with co-coach Melissa Peters, in their two games to date, outscored Peshtigo 10-0, and they had to suffer through a full five innings in their 18-1 romp over Crivitz before the game became official in the rain, snow and the slippery conditions. Kristin Zimmer, on the mound for the Rebels, allowed a single hit in each of the two games. Despite the spring weather, she and Laona/Wabeno have gotten off to a 2-0 start. Huettl's hitters racked up 21 hits in the two games.

Before last week's winter baseball, to get in more playing time, Cards baseball coach Jon Dallmann participated in a rare doubleheader the final day of March. Crandon was to play Coleman, and Wausaukee asked if they could play, too. In the opening game, the Cards ended up losing 1-0 to the Cougars. Anticipating a tie, a Cards runner rounded third in the last inning. Not used to dirt as a track, he tripped between third and home, and ended up being caught in a pickle. Hard luck VanZile lost that outing. Then Crandon played Wausaukee, fresh and rested, and the Cards discovered that the Rangers are a pretty good hitting club. But, hey, it was outside and baseball, even if the wind chill matched that of the Arctic Circle.

This week hasn't started too well, either. Monday's Crandon-Three Lakes game had already been canceled last week when coaches took a look at the fields and another round of storms moved in. Laona/Wabeno didn't play Monday. Tuesday's scheduled games were iffy, at best. Just a weather-dominated spring in the Northern Lakes.

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