FOND DU LAC, WI– Another tough loss to swallow this season for the Growlers, falling late to the Dock Spiders, 6-5.
Kalamazoo jumped on the board early in the second. Credit Michael Diffley (San Diego State) with a bloop two out RBI-single to plate Drew Huff (Middle Tennessee State), 1-0 visitors.
Fond du Lac would soon tie it in the bottom of the fourth after a Joe Breaux (McClennan Community College) sacrifice fly to left field that would bring in Andrew Bullock (Western Carolina), 1-1 after four.
The Growlers would then regain the lead the following inning. It all started with a sacrifice fly and an RBI off the bat of first baseman Charlie Carpenter (USC Upstate), Connor Hollis (Houston) scores. Following a throwing error that would plate Jack Duffy (Missouri State), Drew Huff would double to left field to score Ivan Estrella (Texas Rio Grande), 4-1 good guys.
Kalamazoo struck for one more in the visitor’s half of the seventh inning. Charlie Carpenter would wrack up his second RBI on the night on an RBI-groundout. Jack Duffy comes around for the second time on the night on the fielder’s choice, 5-1.
Connor Manous (Indiana) dominated for a majority of the evening for the Growlers. Final stat line for Manous: six innings pitched, one earned run, on four hits, while striking out seven.
AJ Lewis (Missouri) would start the fierce seventh inning rally for the Dock Spiders with a sacrifice fly to centerfield that would score catcher, Nick Fortes (Ole Miss). A two-RBI single for Brandon Wulff (Stanford) brought Fondy within one. Andrew Bullock would then tie up the game with a clutch 2 out RBI-single, knotted at five a piece after seven.
Keavon Edwards (Missouri) would bring in the game winning run for Fond du Lac in the bottom of the eighth on a sacrifice fly to center to plate Joe Breaux, 6-5 Dock Spiders final.
The Growlers look to bounce back in game two of the series of which is scheduled for 6:35 CT, 7:35 ET.
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The Kalamazoo Growlers 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.growlersbaseball.com or download the new Northwoods League Mobile App on the Apple App Store or on Google Play and set the Growlers as your favorite team.