Unlike the past two nights in which the Mallards offense erupted early and often, it took a late rally to beat the La Crosse Loggers Saturday night in Madison.

Dan Melvin provided the clutch hit, a two-run double in the bottom of the eighth inning off of the Madison.com sign in left-field, propelling the Mallards to a 5-3 victory in front of a raucous crowd of 6,621 at the Duck Pond.

The Mallards got on the board early, with Ryan Rogowski scoring the game?s first run on a passed ball in the first inning. The Mallards led 2-0 after one before La Crosse scored three runs in the top of the fifth inning to take a short-lived 3-2 lead.

Ryan Rogowski scored the tying run in the bottom half of the fifth after leading off the inning with a double. Rogowski eventually scored on an RBI ground out by Kelly Sweppenhiser.

The eighth inning Mallard rally started with a leadoff double by Mike Rohde, followed by a base hit from Sweppenhiser. After Molina grounded out to first advancing Rohde and Sweppenhiser, Loggers starting pitcher Adam Rogers intentionally walked Nate Trumm to load the bases.

The move proved costly, as Melvin came through with the clutch double, allowing Matt Petty to slam the door on the Loggers, earning his eighth save of the season. Mike Creevy continued with his domination of opposing hitters out of the bullpen as well, striking out four in two innings of work to improve his record to 4-2 on the season.

The Mallards (11-9, 34-20) are back in action tomorrow evening in Wausau, taking on the Woodchucks at 5:05 p.m. J.J. Hollenbeck is set to take the mound for the Mallards in the first of a brief two-game road trip. The Mallards return home Wednesday to take on the Eau Claire Express at 7:05 p.m. Great seats for all remaining Mallards home games are still available and can be purchased online at www.mallardsbaseball.com, or by calling the Mallards at 246.4277.