The Battle Creek Bombers fell to the Kenosha Kingfish, 7-6, as their late rally fell just short, with the game-tying run left on third base.
The Bombers took the early lead in the bottom of the second as Ryan Dorow led off the inning with a double, advanced to third on the wild pitch and scored on Nick Podkul's RBI groundout.
But the Kingfish would come back and score three runs in the second to take a 3-1 lead. With two outs in the inning and a runner at first, Marty Bechina and Pete Schuler hit back-to-back singles to tie the game at one before Matt Byers' two-run double gave the Kingfish the lead.
The Bombers would cut the Kingfish lead to one as Christian Helsel singled and came around to score on Dean Miller's fielder's choice, but the Kingfish would come right back to take a 5-2 lead, scoring two in the top of the fourth.
With two outs in the top of the fourth, the Kingfish loaded the bases on two walks and two hit-by-pitches before a bases loaded walk and a wild pitch gave Kenosha 5-2 lead. Bombers' starter Nigel Ward would leave the game in the fourth, pitching 3.2 innings, allowing five runs, four earned, on five hits.
But once again, the Bombers would cut the lead to one in the bottom of the inning as back-to-back-to-back singles by Jacob Blunt, Cody Young and Cody Sporrer loaded the bases before a walk by Helsel and an infield single by Daniel Jipping cut the Kingfish lead to 5-4.
Kenosha's lead would stand at 5-4 through the fifth, before they'd tack on another run in the sixth, but yet again, the Bombers would battle back to cut the lead to one in the bottom of the inning. After Helsel reached on a fielder's choice, Miller singled Helsel home to cut Kenosha's lead to 6-5.
In the top of the seventh, the Kingfish would once again load the bases, but Yu-Hsuan Chen, who came on in relief for Max Ritchie, got JD Hearn to line into a double play to get out of the jam.
And in the bottom of the seventh, Podkul came around to score on Young's infield single, scoring on Bechina's errant throw into right field to tie the game at six.
However, Bechina get the last laugh as after a leadoff walk, he'd come around to score on an error to give the Kingfish the lead for good.
In the bottom of the ninth, Battle Creek would threaten as Dorow led off the inning with a single and advanced to third with two outs, but Young would fly out and the Kingfish would pick up the win.
Chen takes the loss for the Bombers, as they drop to 23-26 on the season and 5-8 in the second half. Bobby Skogsbergh picked up the win for the Kingfish, who move to 20-29 on the season and 4-9 in the second half.
The Bombers and Kingfish will be back in action Friday evening at 7:05 at C.O. Brown Stadium as Battle Creek will try to split the series with Malcolm Grady on the hill.
