Madison, WI – August 4, 2008. For the second straight night the Mallards starting pitcher worked seven strong innings to lead the team to victory over the Green Bay Bullfrogs, as Alex Rivers (Santa Clara) allowed just one run on four hits while striking out seven Monday night in a 7-1 Mallards win. He matched Joe Yermal (Charlotte), who pitched seven innings to beat Green Bay Sunday night. Brandon Wikoff (Illinois) was 3-for-3 with two RBIs and a run scored, and Rob Lyerly (Charlotte) tied the Mallards single-season RBI record with two batted in, his 45th and 46th of the season. The win moves the Mallards to 11-18 in the second half and 33-29 overall, with six games left to play in the second half.
Joe Bonadonna (Illinois) and Aaron Bray (Charlotte) also had a pair of hits for the Mallards, who had 11 on the night. The Bullfrogs only mustered five hits off Rivers and Nathan Kafka (Minnesota State), with two belonging to Brian Pearl. Rivers earned the win and moves to 4-1 on the season, and Bullfrogs starter Jameson Dunn took the loss and is now 2-4.
Rivers worked through the Bullfrogs lineup in order in the top of the first, and the Mallards threatened with two baserunners in the bottom of the first but could not score. Both starters had no trouble in the second inning, and Rivers fanned four Bullfrogs through the first two frames.
The Mallards broke through for a run in the bottom of the third on two hits, with Lyerly getting an RBI on a groundout to first that scored Charlotte teammate Bray from third. In the fourth the Mallards touched Dunn for four runs on four hits and knocked him from the game. Drew Martin (NC State) reached on an error to start the inning and moved to second on a one-out single to right field by Eric Nielsen (Purdue). Bray followed with a first-pitch RBI single up the middle, scoring Martin from second. Following a walk to Bonadonna, Wikoff stepped up and knocked out a single to right field that scored Nielsen and Bray. The Mallards would add one more off Dunn in the form of Lyerly’s RBI record-tying single, before he was relieved by Alex Schmarzo, who worked out of the inning.
Rivers was still strong in the middle innings, allowing just one hit in the fifth and nothing in the sixth. The Mallards added a couple of insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth to make the score 7-0. Phil Gosselin (Virginia) hit his fifth triple of the season that scored Wikoff, and Trent Soares (Fresno State) had an RBI single to left field to bring around Gosselin.
Green Bay finally got to Rivers in the seventh, when David Casey homered to right-center. But Rivers got two more outs to end the inning and keep the score 7-1. That was all for Rivers on the night, who threw 97 pitches. He was relieved by Kafka, who pitched the last two innings and allowed just one hit.
The Mallards will enjoy their final scheduled day off of the season tomorrow, before welcoming the La Crosse Loggers to the “Duck Pond” on Wednesday night. After that contest, the two teams will shift the series to La Crosse, before Waterloo comes to the “Duck Pond” for the final two regular-season games of the year on Friday and Saturday.
