Madison, WI – July 7, 2009. Madison’s Cody Winiarski (MATC) and Battle Creek’s Matt Talley (The Citadel) each threw well enough to win, but Talley received the offensive support to get the victory and the Bombers earned the series split with a 5-0 win in front of 5,435 at the “Duck Pond” on Tuesday night.
It was a pitcher’s dual in the midst of a scoreless tie heading into the seventh inning and Battle Creek’s Jimmy Tanner (USC Upstate) played spoiler, blasting his first home run of the season to lead his team to the win.
“They put their best foot forward tonight,” Manager C.J. Thieleke said of Battle Creek’s effort on Tuesday night. “They pitched well and took advantage of of the opportunities they had. Their a good team and well-coached.”
The Bombers (2-2) had plenty of opportunities against Winiarski (4-2), in fact, they left eight runners on base through the six innings that the right-hander threw at them.
“I was feeling alright,” Winiarski said of his stuff. “They got guys on base, but I was able to get out of it. I was just trying to keep the ball low and get the groundball.”
He did a great job of that, getting out of jams in the first, third and sixth innings. He got seven ground ball outs in all, including two to end innings, one of which was a key double play in the third.
With runners on first and second and one out in the third, Winiarski induced Josh Valle (Marshall) to hit into the unconventional 5-3 double play with a great scoop on the back side by Harold Riggins (NC State) at first to end the inning.
In the Mallards’ half of the third, the Bombers returned the favor with a nifty 6-4-3 double play of their own to retire the side.
Madison (3-1) struggled to string together a rally the entire game. The left-hander Talley was able to keep the potent Mallard offense off balance.
“He was a left-handed pitcher that was probably a little better against right-handed hitters and we just couldn’t get anything going against him,” Thieleke said.
The Bombers finally broke the scoreless affair in the seventh inning when Tanner went deep with a 3-run shot off Garrett Granitz (Azusa Pacific) who was making his Mallard debut. It was Tanner’s first long ball of the season and it couldn’t have come at a better time.
For the Mallards in the fifth, Jacob Esch (Georgia Tech) laced a double just out of the reach of Battle Creek third baseman Doug Otto to put runners on second and third with two outs. Just as it seemed that the Mallards were putting together one of their patented rally’s, Talley got Tyson Blaser (Iowa) to ground out to second to end the inning.
The Mallards, however, weren’t out of the woods yet. Three errors would follow Tanner’s blast and two more Bomber runs would cross the plate, until Brandon Johnson (Western Carolina), also making his Mallard debut, struck out Greg Annarummo (Elon) to finally end the inning. Battle Creek sent 10 batters to the plate and put a 5-spot on the scoreboard.
Madison tried to respond in their half of the seventh inning, loading the bases with two outs for Jimmy Parque (St. John’s). The Mallard center fielder, who entered the game on defense the inning before, hit a lined shot, but right to the second baseman Greg Fujii (San Jose City College) to end the inning.
In the eighth, Joe Van Meter (Virginia Commonwealth) relieved Talley and sat down the top of the Mallards’ lineup in order with a fastball that reached the mid-90’s. Talley scattered six hits and struck out four over seven innings of work to earn his fourth win of the year while Van Meter threw two scoreless innings to close it out for the Bombers.
Winiarski got the no decision despite throwing six scoreless innings and lowering his ERA from 1.90 to 1.66 for the season. He scattered four hits and struck out four while walking five.
Madison will send J.R. Graham (Santa Clara) to the mound to make a spot start against Duluth tomorrow night at 7:05 p.m. The righty is 0-2 on the year with a respectable 3.78 ERA.
Notes: Harold Riggins (NC State) hammered out three hits including a double to finish 3-for-4 at the plate. The Mallards finished with seven hits while being shut out for only the second time this year. Both occurrances thanks to Battle Creek. The Bombers defeated the Mallards 6-0 back on June 8 in Michigan. Cameron Amsrude (UW-Milwaukee) also made his Mallard debut on the mound, tossing two scoreless innings of relief. Joe De Pinto (USC) was waived on Monday due to an ACL injury while Matt Morgan (Purdue) was also waived at the request of Purdue’s baseball team.
