The Battle Creek Bombers lost 22-7 to the Wisconsin Woodchucks Sunday afternoon at Athletic Park. With the loss, the Bombers fell to 35-30 on the season and 17-12 in the second half. However, with the Kalamazoo Growlers losing to the Madison Mallards, the magic number for the Bombers to clinch a playoff spot dropped to two.
The Bombers took the early lead against the Woodchucks. Shortstop Daniel Patzlaff led off the game with a walk. Third baseman Jarrod Watkins followed with a single, and first baseman Nick Podkul was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Center fielder Dean Miller lined a single into center field to score Patzlaff and Watkins to give the Bombers the 2-0 lead.
The Woodchucks cut the lead in half after scoring one run in the bottom of the first, but scored 11 runs in the second inning to take a 12-2 lead.
With the Bombers down in the fifth inning, Nick Podkul hit a leadoff homerun over the left field wall to cut the deficit to 12-3. Dean Miller followed with a single. After stealing both second base and third base, he came home on a one-out sacrifice fly by left fielder Daniel Jipping to make it a 12-4 game.
The Woodchucks scored 10 runs in the fifth inning to extend their lead to 22-4.
With the Bombers down in the ninth inning, catcher Cody Young led off with a single. After Nick Poirier flew out to center field, Daniel Patzlaff reached on a walk. After Storm Joop flew out to right field, Nick Podkul reached on a single. With two outs, Dean Miller lined a single into center field to score Young and Patzlaff to make it a 22-6 game. Christian Helsel followed by singling to left field to score Podkul to make it a 22-7 game, but Daniel Jipping grounded out to end the game.
Austin Nazabal took the loss for the Bombers, his first one of the year. He allowed five runs on two hits in 1.2 innings. He also hit one batter and walked four.
With the Bombers down late, outfielder Eric Gilgenbach came on to pitch for Battle Creek. He threw three innings of shutout baseball. He allowed two hits and one walk, and struck out three batters.
The Bombers now head to Mequon for a two-game series against the Lakeshore Chinooks starting Monday night at 7:35/6:35 Central.
