For the City Times

Battle Creek set to represent South Division in World Series

WISCONSIN RAPIDS – A record book season came to an end Tuesday evening from Witter Field, with a 6-1 loss for the Wisconsin Rapids Rafters to the Battle Creek Bombers. A combination of dominant pitching and power hitting pushed Battle Creek to the South Division Championship and advancement to the Summer Collegiate World Series.

Tom Stoffel wasted no time to get the Battle Creek offense going, sending the first pitch of the game over the wall in right field to put the Bombers up 1-0.

Storm Joop led off the fourth inning by taking the first pitch he saw over the left field fence. Battle Creek added another run on Stoffel’s second RBI of the night, an infield single scoring Aaron Antonini to push the lead up to 3-0.

Battle Creek extended the lead in the top of the eighth with Stoffel’s second home run of the night. A two-run no-doubter pushed the Bomber lead to five.

Nick Anderson broke the shutout in the home half of the eighth with a bloop single over the head of the shortstop to score Jake Guenther from second.

Battle Creek added an insurance run in the ninth, taking advantage of an error to put a run across the plate. Antonini grounded a ball to third base and Alex Holderbach’s throw sailed over the head the first basemen. Nikola Vasic scored from first on the play and gave the Bombers a 6-1 lead.

The pitching staff of Battle Creek was dominant all night, limiting the high powered offense of Wisconsin Rapids to one run on four hits. Andrew Click tossed seven innings of phenomenal baseball and Tom Stoffel finished the final two innings of the game to advance Battle Creek to the Northwoods League World Series against St. Cloud. Jack Eagan was tagged with the loss, going 4 2/3 innings, allowing two home runs.