Kalamazoo, MI- The Kalamazoo Growlers earned a pair of shutout wins over the MacDaddies and put some distance between themselves and Battle Creek in the battle for first place in the Southwest Michigan NWL pod, winning game one by a score of 3-0 and game two by a score of 1-0 in the international tiebreaker.

The Growlers jumped out to the early lead in game one, when in the top of the 1st Carson Greene (Stanford University), in his first game back since July 29th, delivered an RBI Single to drive in Ryan Marra (Brown University).

The Growlers got more offense going in the top of the 3rd, when Blake Dunn (Western Michigan University) got hit by a pitch. Brett Barrera (Stanford University) crushed an RBI double, scoring Dunn. Barrera himself would then score courtesy of a Trent Quartermaine (Ball State University) RBI Single, extending the Growlers lead to 3-0.

That’s how the score would stay, with Adam Wheaton (Trine University) throwing his third complete game shutout, needing just 65 pitches, and allowing only three hits to go along with three strikeouts.

Game two featured a pair of stagnant offenses, and the teams entered the 6th inning international tiebreaker still scoreless. Garrett Schultz (Xavier University) started on second for the Growlers, and came home to score on a wild pitch.

In the bottom half of the 6th, Andre Orselli (Ball State University) came in to pitch for the Growlers, and limited the MacDaddies offense to just one hit, also striking out one en route to earning the save and preserving the Growlers 1-0 win. 

With the wins, the Growlers improve to 24-16-2, and stand alone atop the SW Michigan pod standings. The MacDaddies fall to 9-23-2, and are slated to return to action tomorrow night for a doubleheader with the Battle Creek Bombers. Home run derbies preceding both contests set to start at 5:15 and 8:00 PM.