KENOSHA, Wis. — The Kalamazoo Growlers (20-20; 2-2) took down the Kenosha Kingfish (16-25; 2-4) in a Saturday night barnburner.<\/p>\n
The Growlers started the scoring immediately, scoring two off Kingfish starter Ben McDougal<\/strong> in the first. Kenosha wouldn’t answer until the bottom of the second, when six consecutive Kingfish would reach, capped off by a\u00a0Robert Newland<\/strong> two-RBI double, giving Kenosha a 3-2 lead. It wouldn’t last long, as Kalamazoo would score five in the top of the third, all of the new arm Matthew Woodward<\/strong>, with Cole Garner<\/strong> ending the inning with a bases-clearing, bases-loaded double, before getting thrown out at third. Kalamazoo’s 7-3 lead would shrink to 7-5 following the bottom half of the inning, with\u00a0Brendan Garza’s<\/strong> day coming to a close. The fourth inning would provide more runs for each side, with the score just 8-7 at the conclusion. However, Kalamazoo would outscore the Kingfish 4-2 over the next three innings, taking a 12-9 lead.<\/p>\n The eighth inning would see another Kingfish rally, with a two out\u00a0Peyton Ryback<\/strong> single bringing the game within two. A 1-2-3 ninth would lead to a leadoff single, before\u00a0Jack Zebig<\/strong> would triple to bring in the run, and a\u00a0Jadan Boyce\u00a0<\/strong>sacrifice fly would tie the game at 12. Kalamazoo’s\u00a0Matt Thompson<\/strong> would pop up a bunt, and\u00a0Avery Thielman<\/strong> would strikeout, before\u00a0Cole Garner would bring in the placed runner on a two-out single. After a\u00a0KJ White\u00a0<\/strong>single,\u00a0Brodey Acres<\/strong> would bring in two as chaos would reign on the base paths, with Acres advancing to third. He would score on a wild pitch giving the Growlers a 16-12 lead.\u00a0Bryce Brannon<\/strong> would allow the placed runner to score on a sacrifice fly, while retiring the Kingfish in order en route to a 16-13 final.<\/p>\n Overall, the Kingfish used seven pitchers across the contest, handing out 15 free passes on nine walks and six hit-by-pitches. Kingfish ace\u00a0Maximus McClellan<\/strong> will start tomorrow, and is going to need to provide plenty of length to a very taxed bullpen.<\/p>\n The highlight of the night came in the fourth, when\u00a0Micah Rienstra-Kiracofe<\/strong> scored the only run via a home run. In the bottom half of the inning,\u00a0Brandon Newland<\/strong> would lead the inning off with a ball roped to left-center, before Rienstra-Kiracofe would rob the homer while flipping over the fence. Kalamazoo’s bullpen was managed well, requiring just four relievers to cover 7.1 innings after Garza completed just 2.2 innings.<\/p>\n Kalamazoo and Kenosha face off in a matinee tomorrow afternoon at Simmons Field, with a 1:35 p.m. first pitch scheduled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" KENOSHA, Wis. — The Kalamazoo Growlers (20-20; 2-2) took down the Kenosha Kingfish (16-25; 2-4) in a Saturday night barnburner. […]<\/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-24004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-game-recaps-2025","category-team-news"],"yoast_head":"\n