FOND DU LAC, WI \u2013 Andrew Semo (San Diego) drove in the game-winning run on a sacrifice fly in the tenth inning to give the Wisconsin Rapids Rafters a series-opening, 7-6, win over the Fond du Lac Dock Spiders on Monday night at Witter Field.<\/p>\n
The loss was the third in a row for the Dock Spiders, who fell into third place overall in the Great Lakes West Division at 34-32, a game back of the Wausau Woodchucks for the final playoff spot in the division. The Wisconsin Rapids Rafters won their Northwoods League record 53rd<\/sup> game of the year and broke the previous record of 52, set by the Rafters in 2017.<\/p>\n The Dock Spiders got the scoring started in the first when Parker Noland (Vanderbilt) drove in Kemp Alderman (Ole Miss) to give Fond du Lac a 1-0 lead. The Rafters, however, took a 3-2 lead in the second off an error, passed ball, and a sacrifice fly from Chris Coniff (Wagner).<\/p>\n In the third, Alderman tied the game on a double to the wall in left and Noland drove in another the next batter for the lead. Daylen Reyes (UCLA) then drove in Alderman with a sacrifice fly to center, and Bennett Thompson (Oregon) brought home Noland with another sacrifice fly, this time to left to make it 5-3. The Rafters would respond with a run in the bottom half, but Andrew Sojka (CSUN) smashed a home run off the light pole in right-center to extend the lead back to 6-4. Sojka\u2019s home run was his sixth of the year, tied for the fifth-most in a single season in franchise history (since 2017).<\/p>\n Dock Spiders starter Connor McKenna (Illinois-Springfield) would last through the fifth inning, throwing 95 pitches, the most in a start by a Dock Spiders starter this year. After he departed, the Rafters would start the comeback with a run in the sixth, then another in the seventh to tie it at six on an RBI single from Colin Tuft (Virginia).<\/p>\n Trey Seeley (Cypress) come on in the eighth and dominated, retiring six straight to send the game to extra innings, and was helped out by Sojka, who make a diving catch in the ninth.<\/p>\n In the tenth, the Dock Spiders failed to score a run, as Preston Howey (Saint Mary\u2019s) retired the side in order. In the bottom half, the placed runner would reach third on a wild pitch before a sacrifice fly to left scored Levi Jensen (North Alabama) for the win. Seeley (0-3) took the loss while Howey (4-2) earned the win.<\/p>\n The two teams are set to meet for the series finale tomorrow night in Wisconsin Rapids. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" FOND DU LAC, WI \u2013 Andrew Semo (San Diego) drove in the game-winning run on a sacrifice fly in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":6988,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n