The Madison Mallards had a bad start to the road trip on Friday and Saturday, but rebounded Sunday to win and not only make the road trip respectable thus far, but also place themselves in a position to make a late run at a possible playoff berth.
The trip started off on a bad note on Friday, as the Mallards held leads of 2-0 and 4-2 but lost a tough contest to the Waterloo Bucks by a score of 5-4. Second baseman Mike Settle led the Mallards offense by going 2-4 with two runs scored and first baseman Jaime Martinez hit his first home run of the season.
The bad luck continued on Saturday as the Mallards traveled to Rochester and lost the opening game of that two game series to the Honkers 4-2. The Mallards dug themselves a hole by going behind 4-0 and could never recover in losing their seventh contest in eight days. Madison Edwards led the attack by going 3-4 with an RBI and was on base four times.
Madison finally went back to their winning ways on Sunday night by defeating the Honkers 5-4 in an exciting game to even the series at one apiece. J.J. Jackson picked up the win in relief of starter Phillip Martinez to improve to 1-3 on the season. Jaime Martinez drove in two more runs, but the highlight of the night was the emergence of catcher Lucas Koenig, who went 2-3 and drove in the winning run with an RBI single in the eighth in just his second start of the season.
Despite going 1-2 on the trip and now possessing a record of 5-12 in the second half, the Mallards are still in playoff position, as they are currently only five games behind Waterloo, the leader in the Northwoods League Southern Division.
Madison continues their road trip on Tuesday as they travel to Mankato for a two game series. After a single game in Wausau on Thursday against the Wisconsin Woodchucks, the Mallards return home to play the Woodchucks on Friday night at Warner Park.