MADISON, WI— Ryan Bader (Northwestern) threw an absolute gem to seal the shutout victory over the Madison Mallards. The Fond du Lac Dock Spiders (7-8) and the Mallards (7-8) went back and forth early on.
Bader went eight shutout innings whille giving up four runs and striking out eight, all without allowing a walk. He would retire the first nine batters of the game before giving up a hit in the fourth.
The Dock Spiders Kellen Sarver (Illinois) and Tate Kolwyck (Vanderbilt) hit back-to-back doubles to score the first run in the fourth.
Bader would work with a 1-0 lead until the sixth when the offense lifted some more weight off his shoulders.
Kolwyck would drive in his second run of the night and make it 2-0. Then in the seventh a sacrifice fly by Aaron Anderson (Flagler) gave them a 3-0 lead.
Bader would lock in and be even more difficult to hit. In the eighth it was an RBI single by Sarver to make it 4-0.
The Mallards just couldn’t come up with an answer to Bader’s masterpiece. A final run in the ninth off an RBI double by Anderson would make it 5-0.
Max Cioffi (Mississippi) came in and got the final three outs to seal the 5-0 victory. These two teams matchup tomorrow at 1:05.
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.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.
