Rafters start road trip with win
For the Rapids City Times
WISCONSIN RAPIDS – After a 13-0 win, things were a bit tougher on June 21 for the Wisconsin Rapids Rafters, as they faced the Fond du Lac Dock Spiders at Herr-Baker Field. The Rafters and Dock Spiders were tied at two after two innings before the cranberry and gold broke the stalemate in the seventh and held on for the 3-2 win.
Wisconsin Rapids struck first in the first. With two outs on the board, the Rafters loaded the bases on Fond du Lac starter Ben Probst. Ty Duvall (Vanderbilt) worked a walked, Mitch Mallek (St. Cloud State) collected an infield hit, and Jake Dunham (Northern Illinois) was walked to load the bases for the Rafters. Jack-Thomas Wold (UNLV) smacked a base hit up the middle, scoring Duvall and Mallek, to give the Rafters a 2-0 lead.
The Dock Spiders scored two runs of their own in the second to tie things up. RBI singles from Alex Henwood and Tyler Wardwell brought in the Dock Spider runs. Both teams’ bats were quiet for the next four innings before the Rafters broke through in the seventh.
Jordan Wiley (Kalamazoo College) started the seventh with a single. Steven Rivas (Long Beach State) moved Wiley over to second on a sacrifice. Wiley advanced to third on an error from Mitch Boe allowing Ethan Stringer (Louisville) to reach first. Duvall would make the difference on an RBI base hit to score Wiley and make it 3-2 Wisconsin Rapids.
The Rafters held on to the lead as Mason McReaken shut the door in the ninth to earn his second save of 2018. Chandler Greenfield (2-0, 1,84 ERA) earned the win with three scoreless innings of relief as starter Jake Cook (Birmingham Southern) went the first five frames but left when the game was still tied.
Dock Spiders reliever Austin Wagner (2-1, 2.03 ERA) was given the loss allowing the go-ahead run to score in the seventh.
The Wisconsin Rapids Rafters improve to 13-9 while the Fond du Lac Dock Spiders fall to 13-9.
