GREEN BAY, WI – The Dock Spiders (15-12) were held scoreless through the first three innings of Tuesday night’s game before they plated runs in five consecutive innings to secure an 8-4 win over the Green Bay Booyah (13-14).
A rain delay put Tuesday night’s action on hold before we even had a first pitch, a roughly one-hour delay that pushed the game’s start time to just after 7:40 pm.
The Booyah, who came into the contest just one game out of first in the East Division, got started early, scoring in their first at-bats to take a 1-0 lead in the first.
They would tack onto the lead and add two more runs in the bottom of the third to go up 3-0.
It was all Dock Spiders after that, as they would score in each inning from the fourth to the eighth in a late-blooming offensive outing.
Andrew Bullock (Charleston Southern University) got the scoring started for Fondy in the top of the fourth with a ground ball hit that stayed in the infield and scored Tim Elko (University of Mississippi) from third.
The next inning, Victor Scott II (West Virginia University) smoked his third home run of the year over the right-field wall, his second at Green Bay, to make it a 3-2 game.
Fondy would turn it up a few clicks in the top of the sixth, as the first four batters reached to start the inning. Elko and Parker Noland (Vanderbilt University) recorded base hits, and Aaron Anderson (Liberty University) reached on a walk to load the bases. Bullock lined a hit up the middle that plated Elko and Noland and gave the Dock Spiders a 4-3 lead. Ryan Ritter (University of Kentucky) dropped a sacrifice bunt to move runners over, and Andrew McKenna (Santa Barbara City College) grounded to second to bring in Anderson and collect his first RBI of the year and make it 5-3.
Taylor Jackson (University of Illinois) started the top of the seventh with a double down the left-field line and came in to score on an infield single from Noland.
Fond du Lac added two more in the eighth inning after Bullock reached on a walk to start the inning, followed by an opposite-field bloop single from McKenna. Marcos Sanchez (Texas Wesleyan University) came in to pinch run for Bullock and scored on a Sam Novitske (University of Oregon) ground ball to first that made it 7-3. Scott II came up and put a fly ball down into the left-field corner that plated McKenna and gave Fondy the 8-3 lead.
Green Bay managed one more run in their half of the eighth but the Dock Spiders’ bullpen did their job and shut them down en route to an 8-4 win.
Chris Aldrich (UCLA) started on the bump and threw three innings, allowing just three runs (two earned) and striking out three. Alex Vera (University of Illinois) put in the performance of the night, throwing three hitless innings and striking out three batters to record his first win of the season (1-0). Cam Jones (Georgia State University) worked an inning and two-thirds and allowed only one run and struck out two hitters. It wasn’t a save situation, but Theo Denlinger (Bradley University) had a big outing, striking out a batter with the bases loaded in the eighth to end the inning, and getting three consecutive outs in the ninth to close out the game and secure the win.
With the win and a Rockford Rivets loss, the Dock Spiders are now two games up over both Green Bay and Rockford in the East Division.
The Dock Spiders will close out their four-game road trip with a 6:35 pm showdown against the Booyah on Wednesday night.
The Fond du Lac Dock Spiders are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. The Northwoods League is the proven leader in the development of elite college baseball players. Having completed its’ 26th season, the Northwoods 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 230 Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including three-time All-Star and 2016 Roberto Clemente Award winner Curtis Granderson, three-time Cy Young Award winner and World Series Champion Max Scherzer (WAS), two-time World Series Champions Ben Zobrist (CHC) and Brandon Crawford (SFG) and World Series Champion Chris Sale (BOS). As well as 2019 Rookie of the Year and Home Run Derby Champion Pete Alonso (NYM) and MLB All-Star Jordan Zimmermann (DET). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League website. 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.
