For the second night in a row, the Madison Mallards had good enough pitching to win against the Wausau Woodchucks but did not produce enough offense and fell to the Woodchucks 3-1 before an opening night crowd of 2,203 at Warner Park.
Amad Stephens, like his counterpart Phillip Martinez a night earlier, pitched a gem of a ballgame. He went eight innings and allowed only three hits while striking out 13 batters. He also had a stretch in which he retired 17 straight batters. But he was undone by a terrible start in the first inning, which featured bad breaks and bad defense.
Evan Tierce, who won the game a night earlier for the Woodchucks, led off the game with a base hit and stole second. Dan Augustine then a full count walk with the last pitch being a wild pitch, allowing Tierce to move to third. Stephens looked like he was going to get out of it as he struck out the next two batters, but designated hitter Pete Wiedewitsch blooped a double to left, scoring both runs to make it 2-0. Wiedewitsch then came around and scored on a throwing error by Mallards third baseman Mike Settle to make it 3-0. That is all the offense woodchuck starter Adam Rowe would need.
Rowe pitched seven solid innings, allowing only a single run on four hits with eight strikeouts. His only problem was in the third inning, when Dominic Ramos walked and Kyle Anson singled, putting runners at the corners with nobody out. However, after Madison Edwards grounded into a fielders choice to score Ramos, Rowe got out of the inning by retiring Matt Bose and Charlie Babineaux.
Rowe was also helped by a few baserunning blunders by the Mallards. Cooper Fouts was picked off first base on a very close play in the seventh, and Madison Edwards was caught in a rundown in the eighth which took the Mallards out of a possible big inning. Mark Lowe pitched a scoreless eighth for the Woodchucks and Steve Grasley, who after winning the game last night against Madison, retired the Mallards in order in the ninth for his first save.
The Mallards (0-2) now depart for a three game road trip in Waterloo and St. Cloud before returning home for an eight game homestand. Wisconsin (2-0) still has four more games left on a five game road trip.