KALAMAZOO, MI— Opening night for the defending champion Fond du Lac Dock Spiders went the way they wanted it. The Dock Spiders opened up their season in Kalamazoo, Michigan at Homer Stryker Field against the Kalamazoo Growlers and took home the 5-4 victory.
Jonathan Cowles (University of Colorado-Colorado Greeley) got the opening night start and went seven dominant innings, while giving up three earned runs. He scattered five hits and struck out six.
The Dock Spiders opened up the scoring in the third inning with a Thomas Paulich (Stevens Institute of Technology) RBI single scoring Andrew Bullock (Western Carolina University).
In the fourth the Dock Spiders tacked on another run with a Andrew Schleusner (Montana State Billings) RBI double to make the lead 2-0.
The Growlers answered in the bottom of the fourth with an RBI double and cut the lead to 2-1.
Bullock’s monster night continued with an RBI double to take the lead to 3-1 in the sixth. Bullock would come around to score on a Cherokee LeBeau (Oakland University) fielder’s choice to make it a 4-1 game.
A Bullock double would score another run in the seventh and that would be enough for the Dock Spiders to hang on for the 5-4 victory.
The Dock Spiders are right back at Homer Stryker Field tomorrow 11:05 AM EDT.
The Fond du Lac Dock Spiders are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. The 25-year old summer collegiate 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 former 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 portal. For more information, visit www.booyahbaseball.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.
