The Battle Creek Bombers picked up their first home series sweep of the season with a 4-1 win over the Kokomo Jackrabbits Friday night.
Just as they did last night, Battle Creek drew first blood. In the second inning, Trace Peterson walked, Jack Merrifield hit a double, and Michael Lee notched a sacrifice fly to bring home Peterson and give Battle Creek a 1-0 lead. The Bombers would add a second run in the bottom of the fourth off of an RBI single from Rhett McCall.
Battle Creek starter Keith Carpenter worked a solid five innings for manager Mike Ruppenthal’s Bombers. Carpenter, in his second start of the season, threw five innings, allowing only one run on three hits. The lone run came in the sixth inning, as Carpenter loaded the bases with nobody outs. Ruppenthal made a call to the bullpen, bringing in reliever Pablo Arevalo to try to limit the damage. Arevalo induced a double play from Ryan Stacy, which allowed one run to score. Arevalo then got Blaine Traxel to ground out to end the threat and preserve a 2-1 Battle Creek lead.
The Bombers would then tack on more insurance in the bottom of the sixth. Lee singled into right field, scoring McCall and Merrifield. Lee finished the day with a season-high 3 RBI. Kokomo starting pitcher Lucas Folmar exited after the sixth inning, after giving up two earned, and two unearned runs, on seven hits while striking out a season-high nine batters. He became the third consecutive Kokomo starting pitcher to set a new season high in strikeouts.
Arevalo worked through the seventh inning before giving way to Beaux Bonvillain. The left-hander, who earned a save on Thursday night against Kokomo, once again shut the door. Bonvillain faced only one over the minimum over his two innings of work, earning another save. He also struck out three, including Andrew Labosky and Brandon Chinea to end the game.
Battle Creek next welcomes to C.O. Brown Stadium the division-leading Traverse City Pit Spitters. The squads will play a two-game set in the final series before the Northwoods League All-Star Break. Game One is set for 7:05 in Battle Creek.
The Northwoods League is the proven leader in the development of elite college baseball players. Currently in its’ 26th season, the Northwoods League is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 22 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, over 200 Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (WAS), two-time World Series Champions Ben Zobrist (CHC) and Brandon Crawford (SFG) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (BOS), Jordan Zimmermann (DET) and Curtis Granderson (MIA). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League website. For more information, visit www.northwoodsleague.com or download the Northwoods League Mobile App on the Apple App Store or on Google Play.
