Kalamazoo, MI – The Madison Mallards beat the Kalamazoo Growlers 12-6 in tonight’s ballgame, however, the Growlers’ did not help themselves much. The defense gave up 5 errors throughout the game today and arguably the biggest errors occurred in the 4th inning when both Jake Gleason and Brynn Martinez committed errors which attributed the Growlers’ giving up 5 unearned runs in the inning.
The game ultimately hinged on the 8th inning. The Growlers had crawled their way back into the game from a four-run deficit. The momentum seemed to be in the Growlers’ favor until Cole Daily hit a slow roller to David Huff. Huff fielded it cleanly, but then made a throwing error to 1st base. Walter Talcott, who was pitching extremely well retiring 9 out of 10 batters up to that point, seemed to lose all control and walked the next 2 batters. The Growlers gave up 5 runs that inning as well and all were unearned. The 8th inning was finished off by the Mallards’ Doran Turchin who hit a 3 run bomb and put the exclamation point on the inning.
Nick Hutchins drove the Growlers’ offense again today. He went 2 for 4 with a homerun. Jason Sullivan went 2 for 5 with a double and 2 RBIs. Hutchins and Sullivan were a key part of the Growlers’ comeback effort in the 6th inning. The offense for the Mallards was led by Doran Turchin who went 3 for 4 with a homerun and 5 big RBIs. Cade Bunnell also got into the action for the Mallards today as he went 2 for 4 with an RBI. Turchin and Bunnell were the catalysts for the Mallard’s offense today starting rallies and finishing big innings.
Sam Traver started for the Growlers’ and allowed 5 of the Mallards’ 12 runs, although, none of the runs were earned. Traver was relieved by Ryan Johnson, Walter Talcott, Blake Therrian, and Simon Anderson who all dealt with control issues; the Growlers’ pitchers allowed 8 walks and 3 hit batters combined. Heath Renz started today for the Mallards and he only was able to pitch 2 innings allowing 2 runs. In relief came Sam Cottingham Beard, Andrew Buckley, and David Stover. The bullpen of the Mallards gave up 4 runs, but were consistent enough with their pitching and defense to get the win today.
The Growlers’ play the Mallards again at Homer Stryker Field with an 11:05 AM starting pitch time tomorrow. Tomorrow marks the second Education day, and the second game of the Growlers’ brief 4 game homestand.
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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 160 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.