KALAMAZOO, Mich. — The Kalamazoo Growlers (14-11) salvage the final game with a 5-3 score versus the Kenosha Kingfish (12-16) and remain atop the Great Lakes East.<\/p>\n
Kalamazoo started the matchup with\u00a0Rocco Bernadina<\/strong> on the bump, who had been a bullpen arm for the Growlers prior to Sundays contest, who opened with a 1-2-3 first inning. While\u00a0Maximus McClellan<\/strong> would join with Bernadina as neither starter allowed a base hit until the fourth. The Kingfish’s\u00a0Hogan Denny<\/strong> would nab a one-out single to break the damn, before a walk and another single would score Denny. Bernadina would strand two runners in scoring position on a\u00a0Will Matuszak<\/strong> strikeout. The bottom half of the inning would be the Growlers turn to score, as the first two batters would reach, before a sacrifice bunt and\u00a0Jayce Lee<\/strong> sacrifice fly would score the first run for Kalamazoo. McClellan would balk with two runners in scoring position, scoring\u00a0Antonio Perrotta<\/strong> and giving Kalamazoo a 2-1 lead. Both Bernadina and McClellan would get through the sixth without anymore damage, with Bernadina picking up seven strikeouts, and McClellan six.<\/p>\n The Growlers would go to\u00a0Bryce Brannon<\/strong> in the seventh, who would get two outs, on a sacrifice bunt and fly, while allowing three batters to reach, and two to score.\u00a0Bryce Brassfield<\/strong> would extinguish the fire with an\u00a0Ivan Dahlberg\u00a0<\/strong>strikeout, but not before the Kingfish would take a 3-2 lead. The score would remain there heading into the bottom of the eighth.<\/p>\n The top of the Growler order would come up in the bottom of the eighth, with the leadoff man\u00a0Noah Coy<\/strong> reaching on a walk.\u00a0Micah Rienstra-Kiracofe<\/strong> would hit a sharp ground ball right to third, but the tailor-made double play ball would turn into an E5, allowing two runners on.\u00a0Antonio Perrotta would then miss a home run foul by mere feet, before he would advance both runners on a groundball. With two runners in scoring position,\u00a0Jay Slater<\/strong> would rip a double down the third base line and score two runners giving the Growlers a one-run lead. Later in the inning, with two outs and runners on first and third,\u00a0Trevor Johnson<\/strong> would single bringing in Slater before\u00a0Isaac Vanderwoude<\/strong> would be thrown out at third, with Kalamazoo holding a 5-3 lead.\u00a0Donny Tober<\/strong>, or The Educator, would allow a leadoff single before the final three batters would be retired, including two strikeouts.<\/p>\n Kalamazoo remains in first in the Great Lakes East and will face the Royal Oak Leprechauns at Homer Stryker field in a two-game set beginning Monday night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" KALAMAZOO, Mich. — The Kalamazoo Growlers (14-11) salvage the final game with a 5-3 score versus the Kenosha Kingfish (12-16) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"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-23930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-game-recaps-2025","category-team-news"],"yoast_head":"\n