By: Ari Ross, Broadcaster

The Battle Creek Bombers fell to the Wisconsin Rapids Rafters, 6-3, Thursday evening at Witter Park, dropping their third straight game on their six-game road trip.

The Rafters got on the board first in the bottom of the second inning, scoring two runs on three hits to take an early lead. After two one-out walks surrendered by Bombers' starter Andrew Click, Dustin Woodcock singled to load the bases. Joe Wainhouse grounded into a fielder's choice to give the Rafters the early lead, and Wisconsin Rapids would extend it to 2-0 on Doak Dozier's RBI single.

Cody Young would cut the Rafters lead in half in the top of the third as he led off the inning with a solo shot over the left field fence against Rafters' starter Chris Cooper.

With a runner at second and two outs in the third, Edgar Sanchez would relieve Click, as Click finished with a no-decision for the Bombers in his second start, pitching 2.2 innings, allowing two unearned runs on four hits, while striking out two. Sanchez would get out of the jam and pitch 2.1 scoreless innings for the Bombers.

In the top of the sixth, Daniel Jipping would draw a one-out walk and come around to score on Ryan Dorow's sacrifice fly to tie the game at two.

And an inning later, Nick Podkul drew a leadoff walk, advanced to second on Daniel Patzlaff's sacrifice bunt, third on Jarrod Watkins' groundout and scored on Christian Helsel's infield single as the Bombers' took a 3-2 lead. Podkul drew two walks on the evening to increase his total to 20 on the season.

But the Rafters would tie things up and take the lead in the bottom of the seventh as two errors put runners at the corners with one out. After Austin Bueter, who relieved Sanchez in the sixth, struck out Ben Fisher, both runners came around to score on a wild pitch and a errant throw by Young, giving the Rafters a 4-3 lead.

The Rafters would extend their lead against Bueter in the eighth, as with a runner at first and two outs, Joe Wainhouse launched a two-run homer over the right field fence to give Wisconsin Rapids a 6-3 lead.

Bueter takes the loss for the Bombers, while John Jaeger picks up the win for the Rafters. Wisconsin Rapids moves to 29-16 on the season with a win and 5-4 in the second half while the Bombers drop to 4-5 in the second half and 22-23 on the year.

Battle Creek will try to split the two-game set against the Rafters at Witter Park Friday night at 7:05 CST/8:05 EST with Scott Sency toeing the rubber for the Bombers.