Wisconsin Rapids, Wis. – The Battle Creek Bombers lost a 5-1 lead and then dropped a 7-6 contest on Zack Domingues’ (Long Beach St.) walk-off single in the seventh. 

After the Bombers stranded Walsh at third base in the top half of the seventh, the Rafters’ Cleveland reached on a single to lead off the bottom half of the inning. A pinch runner, Jonah Bride (Neosho CC), reached second on a sacrifice bunt, Sam Talleson (Central Florida) walked and Demetrius Sims (Bethune-Cookman) singled to load the bases. Dunn struck out Casey Danley (Illinois Central) and Mason Marshall (BYU) was called from the bullpen. On a 3-2 pitch, Gleason made a great stop at first, but could not connect with Marshall on the throw to first and Bride scored the walk-off run.

Layne Bruner (Washington State) struggled out of the gate for the Bombers. He allowed singles to the first three Rafters hitters. With the bases loaded, Bruner recorded two strikeouts, but in between Ryan Cleveland (Georgia Southern) was able to knock in a run on a sacrifice fly to centerfield. 

The Bombers quickly tied the score with one in the second. Tyler Walsh (Belmont) doubled to leadoff the inning and then moved to third on Trek Stemp’s (Washington State) groundout to the right side. With Spencer Hemphill (Louisiana-Monroe) batting, Walsh scored on a wild pitch. 

The Bombers used the long ball to put up a four-spot in the third. Lin Li (Taiwan) led off the inning by reaching on an error. Dan Swain (Siena) immediately followed with a two-run homer to left field. After a Cayce Bredlau (Austin Peay) single, Charlie Madden (Mercer) hit an opposite field home run to put the Bombers up 5-1. 

Wisconsin Rapids answered the Bombers big inning with one of their own in the fourth. The first five Rafters reached in the inning, starting with a towering home run from Cleveland. After loading the bases with a walk and two singles, Danley hit a two-RBI double to pull Wisconsin Rapids within one. Sims scored the tying run on an error by Bredlau. 

The two teams traded runs in the fifth. Three walks loaded the bases and set up Dre Gleason’s (Austin Peay) long sacrifice fly to centerfield. In the bottom half of the inning, Sims drove in Mitchell McGeein (Eastern Michigan) on a single. 

The Bombers found themselves in trouble again in the sixth. Evan Dunn (Pepperdine) walked Domingues and hit Alex Herseg (Keystone College) to lead off the inning. But Dunn struck out the dangerous Jake Sandlin and induced an inning-ending double play to escape the jam.

That set up the series of events that led to the Rafters’ seventh-inning walk-off single. 

The Rafters move to 8-7 with the win, while the Bombers fall to 7-9 and 2-4 on the road trip.

First pitch of game two of the doubleheader is schedule for 8:35 p.m. local time/9:35 p.m. Eastern. 

The Battle Creek Bombers are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. Playing its 22nd season of summer collegiate baseball, 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 120 Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (WAS) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (CWS), Jordan Zimmermann (WAS), Curtis Granderson (NYM), Allen Craig (BOS) and Ben Zobrist (OAK). For more information, visit www.battlecreekbombers.com.

(Story photo courtesy of Battle Creek Photography and Design – Levi Green)