Published On: August 17th, 2008

Madison beat Thunder Bay 4-3 Saturday night to even the Northwoods League Championship Series at one game apiece. Andy Deain (Northern Illinois) struck out Nate Woods (Belmont) with the potential game tying run at third base to end the game.

Thunder Bay opened the scoring in the first inning on the first of two solo home runs in the game for Jon Kelton (Alabama). His second one came in the sixth to cut the Border Cats deficit to 4-2.

Madison built their lead with a pair of two-run innings in the third and fifth.  The Mallards scored runs in the third inning on a dropped fly ball by Kelton in left field and on and RBI single by Josh Groves (Wisconsin-Milwaukee). The runs in the fifth came across on a wild pitch and a bases loaded walk. Thunder Bay pushed across their third run of the game in the eighth inning on a Ryan Terry (Monmouth) single.

Down one run in the ninth, Thunder Bay nearly pulled out another thrilling home victory. Deain walked Kelton with one out. Two wild pitches later Kelton was 90 feet away from tying the game at four. Derek Wiley (Belmont) just missed ending the series when his long fly ball down the left field line hooked foul. Moments later Wiley went down on strikes for the second out of the inning. Nate Woods (Belmont) followed with a strikeout to give Andy Deain a save and the Mallards an important game two victory. Joe Yermal (Charlotte) worked five innings and allowed four hits and two earned runs to get the win. Danny Rosenbaum (Xavier) took the loss allowing four runs, two earned, over 4.2 innings.

The series will conclude tonight with a decisive game three beginning at 7:05 Eastern from Port Arthur Stadium in Thunder Bay. Alex Rivers (Santa Clara) will take the hill for the second time this postseason for the Mallards and oppose Michael Raymond (Belmont Abbey) of the Border Cats.

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