FOND DU LAC, WI- In a back-and-forth affair, the Dock Spiders (20-24) won on a walkoff single for the first time in the inaugural season as they beat the Rockford Rivets (22-19) 9-8.
For the second straight night, the Dock Spiders scored in the 1st inning. However tonight, Fondy struck for four runs. The four run 1st was capped off by a couple of RBI singles from Nick Fortes and Chris Cornelius.
The momentum would carry over to the 2nd inning when Fondy struck for two more runs. Andrew Bullock dropped a two run double down the left field line to make it 6-0 in favor of the Dock Spiders. Bullock now has driven in 29 runs on the season (a team high).
Rockford's offense wouldn't go away quietly as Hunter Feduccia banged a 2 run home run off of Spiders starter Taylor Purus in the 3rd inning.
With the score at 6-2 in favor of the Spiders, the Rivets would bust out their biggest inning of the night. Five runs came across to score in the 5th inning to make it a 7-6 Rivets lead. Neal Tyrell and JC DeMuri both had two run singles to highlight the inning.
Trailing for the first time in the game, the Dock Spiders would tie the game in the bottom of the 5th and proceed to reclaim the lead in the bottom of the 6th inning on a Nick Fortes single that scored Brandon Wulff. Though Wulff didn't drive any runs in, he still managed to have a career day going 5-5 with two doubles and three runs scored.
In the top of the 8th inning, the Spiders saw the debut of Houston Glad. Glad pitched the 8th and 9th innings and although he allowed the tying run in the 8th inning, Glad would eventually pick up the win.
Wit the game tied at 8, and two outs in the bottom of the 9th inning, Thomas Luevano would deliver with some late game heroics. The second baseman out of Crieghton delivered a single into centerfield that plated Eric Gilgenbach, and the Spiders walkedoff with a 9-8 victory.
The Dock Spiders will hit the road tomorrow for a four game road trip to Michigan. Game one against Battle Creek is slated for a 6:05 CSTstart time.
The Fond du Lac Dock Spiders are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League.The 23-year-old summer collegiate league is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 20 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, more than 170 former Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including two-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (WAS), two-time World Series Champion Ben Zobrist (CHC) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (BOS), Jordan Zimmermann (DET), Curtis Granderson (NYM) and Lucas Duda (NYM). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League portal. For more information, visit www.dockspiders.com or download the new Northwoods League Mobile App on the Apple App Store or on Google Play and set the Dock Spiders as your favorite team.
