The Madison Mallards bid to win seven straight games came crashing to an end Friday night as the St. Cloud River Bats flew into Madison and took the final game of the series 8-2 before a crowd of 4,713.

The River Bats drew first blood in the top of the fourth inning and never looked back, putting up six runs in the inning. The big blow for the Mallards came on a three-run home run by Tommy Giles that put the River Bats ahead 6-0. St. Cloud scored two more runs in the fifth to extend their lead to 8-0.

The Mallards managed to get on the board in the bottom of the fifth behind Dan Melvin?s RBI double and Danny Dressman?s RBI single. First baseman Mike Rohde finished the night four-for-five.

Rick Rivas (1-1) picked up his first loss of the season, lasting just four innings and allowing nine hits and giving up six earned runs.

The first place Mallards return to action Saturday at 7:05 p.m. against the Thunder Bay Border Cats. Madison sends Brent Varnado to the mound for his third start of the season. Despite an 0-1 record Varnado has an ERA of 0.96 having allowed just one earned run in 9 1/3 innings of work.

Tickets are still available and can be purchased at www.mallardsbaseball.com or by calling the Mallards ticket office at 608.246.4277.