For the City Times

Four run third provides offense for pitching

WISCONSIN RAPIDS – The arms of Rafters pitching continued their dominance at Witter Field tonight, taming the Dock Spiders offensive attack and securing a 4-1 victory over Fond du Lac. The Dock Spiders jumped out to an early 1-0 lead, but Wisconsin Rapids manufactured four runs in the 3^rd inning to take the lead and never looked back.

The Dock Spiders would open the scoring in the top of the 2^nd on a sacrifice fly delivered by AJ Lewis. Cory Wills would come across to score for the visitors who took a 1-0 lead after two complete innings.

The Rafters turned to small ball in the 3^rd to move runners into scoring position, with a sacrifice bunt by Nick Owens to advance runners to second and third with one out. A walk of Bryson Stott would load the bases and the home team would score their first run on a bases loaded walk of Dustin Woodcock. Still with the bases loaded, the next batter Ryan Stekl grounded back to the pitcher Gunnar Kay who attempted to cut down the lead runner at home, but fired the ball past the glove of the catcher and to the backstop. Two runners would score on the error, with Nick Anderson scoring from third and Bryson Stott hustling to score from second. The Rafters would add one more with Josh sacrifice hit scoring Woodcock from third. The home side led after three innings, 4-1.

The bullpen would ice the game after a strong 5.1 innings from Jesse Slinger. The combination of Alex Jackson, Keaton Graf and Layne Henderson dominated the bats of the Dock Spiders in 3.2 innings of relief. Rafters pitching retired the last 10 batters of the game to seal the victory and move to 8-1 on the season. The loss for the Dock Spiders marked the fourth game in a losing skid and drops their record to 3-6.

These two teams will meet again tomorrow night in Fond du Lac. The Rafters will return home on Friday, June 9^th, to take on the Kalamazoo Growlers for the first time in the 2017 season. Friday’s first pitch is set for 7:05 p.m.  and is Mustache Night, featuring guest appearance by MLB Hall of Famer and former Milwaukee Brewer Rollie Fingers, presented by Bull’s Eye Credit Union.