For the City Times

WISCONSIN RAPIDS – Nathan Hemmerling (Lakeland) and Brayden Bonner (Dixie State) threw a combined no-hitter on Aug. 8, the first in the Rafters 11-year history. Both, Bonner and Hemmerling, have been with the Rafters for the past three summers.

The Wisconsin Rapids Rafters (34-32) won both games over the Battle Creek Bombers (22-44), on the day, 7-0 in game two and 4-0 in game one. Game two started an hour after the scheduled 5:05 p.m. first pitch time due to rain and saw no Bombers hits.

Brayden Bonner made his last appearance of his Rafters career. Bonner struck out three Bombers and retired all six he faced to complete the game. The all-time Rafters save leader finishes with 27 career saves.

“I couldn’t have wished for a better way to go out,” said Bonner. “The fan base here is awesome, I wouldn’t have wanted to spend my last three summers anywhere else.”

Nathan Hemmerling got the game two start and started with three 1-2-3 innings. Only one base runner reached via an error in the fourth. Hemmerling finished with eight strikeouts.

“We all had faith in each other.” said Hemmerling “Great defense helps great pitching.”

Offensively the Rafters came through and scored three runs in the fourth and four in the sixth inning. Addie Burrow (Virginia) delivered a three-run home run in the sixth, his second of the season. Weston Eberly (Columbia) had a three-hit game, and Jake Schulz (Dixie State) blasted an RBI triple.