Pines baseball beats Mosinee for first time since GNC formation

The Northland Pines baseball team played its best game of the season last Thursday as the Eagles earned an 8-4 Great Northern Conference win at Mosinee. It was the first time the Eagles took down the Indians on the diamond since the GNC formed almost 20 years ago.

“Northland Pines had never beaten Mosinee since the Great Northern Conference was formed in 2008,” noted Pines Coach Peter Aerts. “We were 0-36 before this win, and I’m very proud the boys accomplished that.”

The Eagles did not reach base in the first three innings and struggled a bit on defense early as they fell behind 2-0 after three.

Junior pitcher Brody Hoeft kept Pines in it, and his teammates got locked in as they scored three runs in the fourth in support to take the lead.

Mosinee tied things at 3-3 in the fifth inning before Nolan Huelskamp’s big two-run double put the Eagles ahead 5-3.

They closed the door with a 3-run seventh inning as Aiden Minx drove in a run and Griffin Beyer plated two for an 8-3 advantage.

Mosinee scored a run in their half of the seventh, but Hoeft put the finishing touches on his 95-pitch, complete game win. Hoeft had three strikeouts, one walk and allowed only one earned run.

Huelskamp knocked in four runs on two hits, including a double, and Beyer drove home two runs on three hits and scored twice. Minx also scored two runs with one run batted in.

The Mosinee win was a bounce-back effort by the Eagles after losing 7-2 at Rheinlander on April 13.

“Rhinelander is a tough opponent this year, and we were right with them for most of the game,” noted Aerts.

But the Eagles were only able to score single runs in the fourth and seventh innings. Those two runs came in on a double and a long home run to center field by Hoeft.

“We hit the ball hard at times, but had too many strikeouts (eight) to give ourselves a chance to score many runs. Their pitchers threw hard, and it was difficult for many of our hitters to adjust,” said coach Aerts.

Rhinelander had seven hits, and the Eagles committed four errors.

At the end of last week, the Northland Pines baseball team had a 4-3 record and sat at 2-0 in the GNC standings.

They were scheduled to host Lakeland Monday and travel to Wittenberg-Birnamwood on Tuesday. Final scores of those games were not available at press time. The Eagles are also slated for a road game at Medford this Thursday, April 23, at 5 p.m. Pines will then host Three Lakes-Phelps on Friday, April 24, at 5 p.m. A rescheduled game with Jeffers, Mich., was cancelled last Friday due to weather.