Madison, WI – June 12, 2009. The Mallards earned their third walk off win at home thanks to Joe De Pinto’s (USC) RBI single to center field field, driving in Trent Soares (Fresno State) for the 5-4 win over the La Crosse Loggers in 10 innings on Friday night. Madison struggled to get any offense going early on, but the Loggers bullpen and a crowd of 5,202 in attendance backing them led to a ninth striaght win at the “Duck Pond”.
The Mallards (12-3) entered the eighth inning with just two hits, but battled against the La Crosse bullpen to push across four runs and steal another win away from a Northwoods League opponent. Most importantly, the Mallards kept pace with Eau Claire who also won to stay in a first place tie in the South Division.
La Crosse (9-6) starter Aaron Dott (Uw-Whitewater) cruised through his 6.1 innings of work. He allowed one hit while striking out seven and walking just two. The left hander, drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays yesterday, lowered his ERA to 0.49 on the season only to be denied his second win of the year.
“He pitched well. Tip your cap to him,” Head Coach C.J. Thieleke said. “He’s one of the top pitchers in this league.”
Madison hurler Jacob Esch (Georgia Tech) did his best to match Dott. Esch, making his first start of the season, gave up two runs on four hits while striking out four and walking one.
“He had great command of all three of his pitches and had showed great composure,” Thieleke said of Esch. “He went through the best lineup and team we’ve seen so far. He’s going to be a good pitcher in this league.”
After sitting down the first three hitters of the game, Esch ran into a little trouble in the second. An error allowed the leadoff hitter to reach and a pair of singles later on loaded the bases with one out. The right hander battled back though, getting Robert Abel (San Francisco) to strike out looking and then Tony Mueller (Winona State) to ground into a fielder’s choice to end the threat unscathed.
In the third inning, with two outs and a runner on, Brandon Meredith (San Diego State) cracked his first homer of the year out to left center field to break the scoreless tie and gave the Loggers a 2-0 lead.
Esch would settle down after that to retire 10 of the next 11 batters he faced before exiting after six innings.
“It took me about four innings to really settle down,” Esch said. “But it was good to get out there.”
Down 4-0 heading into the eighth inning and only one hit to show for at that point, the Mallards used their last inning heroics once again to remain undefeated at home. They taxed the Logger bullpen, forcing them to use three relievers as Madison sent eight batters to the plate. A double by Ben Long (UW-Milwaukee) followed by a trio of walks, a wild pitch and an RBI single by Joe Patterson (Texas A&M) led to four runs in the inning to tie the game.
Denny Clement (Texas A&M) fired two scoreless inning of relief to get the Mallards to the 10th inning. That set up Soares’ infield single to start things off. It was a slow roller to the left of the second baseman Abel who handled it cleanly and was a split second late of getting the streaking Soares. Kurtis Muller (Iowa) then executed a sacrifice bunt and made way for De Pinto’s RBI single to center field to send the Mallard faithful into a frenzy.
“We got into the bullpen and beat them,” Esch said. “It’s always nice to win at home and with a walk off. We’re going for 10 in a row tomorrow.”
It will be Matt Morgan (PUrdue) to take the mound for the Mallards in their quest for a 10th straight victory at home and 12 win in their last 13 games overall. Morgan is 1-0 with a 1.65 ERA on the year. First pitch on Saturday is scheduled for 6:05 p.m. at the “Duck Pond”.
