LOVES PARK, Ill. – The Willmar Stingers batted around twice on the night in sending the Rockford Rivets to their ninth straight home loss with a 16-5 win on Saturday night at Rivets Stadium.
With the game scoreless in the third, Cole Gray (Midland University) reached on a strikeout wild pitch, Quincy McAfee (Pepperdine) singled, and Danny Pardo (Montevallo) walked, Justin Toerner (Cal State Northridge) hit a two-run single off of Drake Robison (Iowa) to open the scoring. Brandon Perez (USC) then got Greg Lambert (Southern Illinois) home on a groundout to make it 3-0. After a wild pitch scored Toerner and an error scored Luke Becker (Kentucky), Gray doubled home a run to make it 6-0 Stingers against Robison (6-4). Ryan Long (Texas Tech) would connect on a three-run home run to cut the lead to 6-3.
With the score 7-4 Willmar into the eighth, the Stingers put the game away. Eleven of the first twelve batters reached as part of an eight-run inning to blow the game open and make it 15-4. Both teams would get a run from there, but the result was already decided by that time.
The Rivets will wrap up the two game series against the Willmar Stingers at Rivets Stadium Sunday night at 5:05. Broadcasts and live streams can be found at NorthwoodsLeague.com.
Rockford is a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League, which will play its 23rd season of summer collegiate baseball in 2016. The Northwoods League is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 18 teams, drawing significantly more fans, in a friendly ballpark experience, than any league of its kind. A valuable training ground for coaches, umpires and front office staff, more than 150 Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (Washington Nationals) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (Chicago White Sox), Jordan Zimmermann (Detroit Tigers), Curtis Granderson (New York Mets), Lucas Duda (Mets) and Ben Zobrist (Chicago Cubs). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League Website, NorthwoodsLeague.com. For more information, visit RockfordRivets.com.
