Zach Cooper (Central Michigan) helped the Waterloo Bucks beat the Wisconsin Rapids Rafters by a score of 6-0 on Sunday. Cooper threw 8.0 innings of shutout baseball while only giving up four Rafters hits. Cooper improved his record to 2-3 with a 2.94 ERA. Steven Florez (New Mexico) of the Eau Claire Express also threw a great game while he earned the win. Florez threw 8.0 innings of two run baseball.
Chris O’Dowd (Dartmouth) of the La Crosse Loggers had a great day at the plate on Sunday afternoon. O’Dowd went 3-for-5 with one run scored and three RBI. O’Dowd hit his third homerun of the season and improved his batting average to .321. The Colorado native was selected to the 2010 Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American team. O’Dowd was drafted in the 40th round by the Oakland Athletics in the MLB First Year Player Draft.
Two Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference baseball players have been battling atop the batting average list. Drew Heithoff (Augustana) is hitting .423 this season which ranks first in the NWL while Willmar native Jordan Smith (St. Cloud State) is hitting .400 for the Stingers. Brandon King (Oral Roberts) is third in the NWL at .377 for the Wisconsin Woodchucks.
The Eau Claire Express were down 2-1 after the fourth inning, but scored seven unanswered runs to beat the Green Bay Bullfrogs 8-2 on Sunday afternoon. The Express were led by Nate Baumann (Augustana) and Andrew Leonard (Illinois Chicago) who both were 3-for-4 with a RBI.
Mike Strong (Oklahoma State) continued his great pitching for the Rochester Honkers by throwing a gem against the Thunder Bay Border Cats. Strong, who leads the league in strikeouts, threw 7.0 innings of four hit baseball while striking out six. Strong is currently 3-1 in 34 innings pitched. Strong was drafted in the 2009 MLB Draft in the 25th round by the Chicago White Sox.
Kyle Gaedele (Valparaiso) led the Madison Mallards to victory Saturday night over the Wisconsin Woodchucks. Gaedele was 4-for-6 with two runs scored, a RBI and a walk. Gaedele is currently hitting .322 in 35 games with 13 extra base hits. Rafael Lopez (Florida State) also had a great day at the plate going 2-for-6 with five RBI and two runs scored for the Mallards.
Rochester 7, Thunder Bay 1 The Rochester Honkers defeated the Thunder Bay River Cats 7-1 recording back-to-back wins to start the second half. Behind starter Mike Strong (Oklahoma State) the Honkers pitching staff shut down the River Bats surrendering just one run. Strong pitched 7.0 innings allowing just one run on four hits while collecting six strikeouts.
Rudy Jaramillo improved his record to 2-1 on the season for the Eau Claire Express while he helped beat the Green Bay Bullfrogs 9-0. Jaramillo threw 7.0 innings of scoreless baseball while only giving up two hits. The lefty currently has a 1.29 ERA in 28 innings pitched. Jared Wagoner (Butler) of the Waterloo Bucks also threw a great game.
J.R. Graham (Santa Clara) of the Madison Mallards earned the win and had the game winning hit against the Wisconsin Woodchucks on Friday night. Graham threw a scorless tenth inning to earn the win and drove in Kyle Gaedele with the game winning RBI. Josef Terry of Rochester had a four hit performance against the Thunder Bay Border Cats.
Rochester 6, Thunder Bay 3 The Rochester Honkers pounded out 14 hits and used a great pitching performance from Rochester native, Josh McKeon (Upper Iowa), to beat Thunder Bay 6-3. McKeon threw 6.0 innings of four hit baseball to improve his record to 3-1.
