KALAMAZOO, MI – A rain-shortened four inning day at the ballpark led to a two-day first game for Kalamazoo against the Wisconsin Rapids River Rafters, which it lost 5-0, and a seven inning second, which the Growlers won 1-0.

Matt Frawley (Purdue), who was the Growlers (6-14) starter for game one, pitched well. Frawley went four innings and struck out a staggering seven batters. Even though Frawley showed dominance on the mound, he did give up a sacrifice fly from Blake Molitor (Illinois State) to make the score 1-0.

With the score 1-0, the skies opened up, pouring a large amount of rain in a short amount of the time to deem the field unsafe for playing, which set up Frawley for the loss as the Rafters (10-8) scored four more runs the next day to take game one.

The seven-inning game two showcased arguably the Growlers’ strongest starting pitcher, Shane Bryant (Purdue) pitch a complete, two strikeout, one hit game.

The one hit Bryant gave up was not until the sixth inning when Casey Danley (Illinois Central) hit a bloop single.

With this start, Bryant has lowered his ERA to a flat 3.00.

“I’m lucky enough that my last time up was against the Rafters,” said Bryant. “Me and Schuman had a game plan of attacking with fastballs and attack both sides with fastballs.”

“I kinda wanted to go into the game today and have the same approach.”

In the top of the seventh, Bryant almost saw his win, and the lead, disappear as Sam Tolleson (Central Florida) hit a moon-shot over the short 291-ft left field fence. Fate was on Bryant’s side today, though, as the ball drifted foul at the last second.

“I was about to get on my knees and start praying,” Bryant said. “I saw that hit and new it had the depth.”

“Luckily enough, it went foul.”

The one run for Kalamazoo came early on, in the second, when Bryce Adams (LSU) put himself on second with a lead-off double. After a wild pitch, Adams found himself on third when a single from Kory Brown (BGSU) hit an RBI single.

Next, Kalamazoo will head to Kenosha to take on the division-leading Kingfish for a two game set.

The Northwoods League is the proven leader in the development of elite college baseball players. The 21-year old summer collegiate league is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 18 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, 120 Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (WAS) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (CWS), Jordan Zimmermann (WAS), Curtis Granderson (NYM), Lucas Duda (NYM) and Ben Zobrist (OAK). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League YouTube channel. For more information, visit http://www.northwoodsleague.com.