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ROCKFORD, Ill. \u2014 The Kalamazoo Growlers ambushed the Rockford Rivets in a rain-shortened contest, with a 17-1 final.<\/p>\n
The Growlers jumped on Rockford starter Danny Cercello<\/b> with a 12-run first, which saw Kalamazoo taking eight walks and four singles, while sending 17 hitters to the plate. Cercello would record just one out before being replaced by Gideon Motes<\/strong>, who would reach the league mandated 35 pitch limit. The offense consistently moved the line to the next man in the lineup. After sitting for 35+ minutes, Growlers starter Kaden Kiser<\/strong> pitched a shutout first. Kalamazoo continued the offensive momentum into the second, as the first two batters reached before\u00a0Noah Coy<\/strong> would bring them both home with a double. Kiser would pitch another shutout bottom of the second.<\/p>\n In the top of the third,\u00a0Growlers catcher\u00a0Cole Garner<\/strong> would reach via hit by pitch, before\u00a0Matt Thompson<\/strong> sent a pitch deep past the left field wall, giving the Growlers a 16-0 lead when it landed. Virginia third baseman\u00a0Isaac Vanderwoude<\/strong> would go back-to-back sending a pitch over the right center field fence to give the Growlers a 17-0 lead. Kiser would pitch a tough third inning, as he stranded the bases loaded allowing just one run. Following the Growlers first scoreless inning of the night, against Rivets catcher Byron Blaise <\/strong>nonetheless, the game went into a roughly 30-minute rain delay.<\/p>\n Following the rain delay, the Growlers removed Kiser from the game, and inserted Juju Thompson<\/strong>. Thompson pitched a 1-2-3 fourth. In the top of the fifth, Kalamazoo’s Noah Coy would reach on a two-out walk before getting intentionally picked off at first to end the inning. Juju Thompson would work around a leadoff baserunner to pitch a scoreless first, before the game was called.<\/p>\n Kalamazoo and Rockford will play game two of their series Wednesday at 11:05 a.m. local time. The Growlers will then open up their season rivalry with Battle Creek, on the road.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ROCKFORD, Ill. \u2014 The Kalamazoo Growlers ambushed the Rockford Rivets in a rain-shortened contest, with a 17-1 final. The Growlers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":23670,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[490,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-recaps-2025","category-team-news"],"yoast_head":"\n