Hundreds of Mallards fans stand in line to receive the last bobblehead, this time “Maynard Pitching,” in the five-part Bobblehead Series. Tonight’s attendance of 7,465 was a season-high but could be exceeded Thursday night.
Madison, WI – July 29, 2009. The Madison Mallards largest crowd of the year, a total of 7,465 fans, went home dissapointed Wednesday night as their hometown team lost to the La Crosse Loggers 10-2 at the “Duck Pond.”
The Mallards jumped out early in the first inning as hot-hitting catcher John Hicks (Virginia) belted a one-out hit to right-center field to begin the threat. After a Jerrud Sabourin (Indiana) punch-out, Joe Patterson (Texas A&M) then hit a single to advance Hicks into scoring position. Next came Troy Channing (St. Mary’s) who would add the Mallards third hit of the inning to score Hicks and give the Mallards a 1-0 lead.
La Crosse answered back in their next at-bat with a three-run second inning on an RBI single by Nick Baligod (Oral Roberts) to score Aaron Gates (Pepperdine) who was on with a walk and advanced to second on a stolen base. After Blair Moore (San Diego State) got on by a Sabourin error, the next two batters in Morgan Mickan (Texas) and Austin Knight (Dallas Baptist) were put on by a walk and hit-by-pitch, respectively to load the bases. Chris Engell (San Diego) then clutched-up with a two-out single to left field to score Moore and Mickan and give the Loggers a 3-1 lead.
Madison would get a run back in the third inning on a Patterson RBI ground out to first baseman Gates to score Jimmy Parque (St. John’s) who was on base with a leadoff walk and later advanced to second base after Hicks recorded his second hit of the game and to third on a 4-3 groundout by Sabourin. The Mallards now trailed 3-2, however that would stand to be the last score for the team on the night.
La Crosse padded its lead in the fourth on a leadoff home run by Mickan, his first of the year, and an RBI double by Justin Preckajlo (North Florida) to score Robert Brantly (UC Riverside) who was on with a single to right field. Those two runs moved the score to 5-2, advantage La Crosse.
The Loggers would tack another run in the seventh inning on a Mickan’s second hit of the game, this time a double to left-center field to score Robert Abel (San Francisco) from second base to move the score to 6-2.
Moving to the eighth, La Crosse would add four more runs in the drubbing on a Brantly double to score Engell who advanced on an error by shortstop Brashad Johnson (Des Moines Area CC). Abel then hit a double of his own to score Brantly and give the Loggers an 8-2 lead. The scoring continued as Gates was able to score on a passed ball by Mallards reliever Brad Allen (Elgin CC) and an RBI single by Baligod to score Abel and move the score to 10-2.
That’s how the game would end as La Crosse starting pitcher Steve Gruver (Tennessee) picked up his sixth win (6-0) of the season to keep his record perfect after throwing two earned runs over seven innings while striking out six Mallards hitters.
All-Star Cody Winiarski (MATC) was saddled with his fourth loss (5-4) after allowing four runs (2 earned) over only three innings of work. He walked four batters.
The Mallards (13-9) now find themselves just one-half game in front of the Loggers (13-10) and still one full game ahead of Waterloo (13-11) after the Bucks lost to the Wisconsin Woodchucks by a score of 6-1.
__
The Mallards continue its brief two-game homestand Thursday with a 7:05 p.m. start time. Gates will open at 5:30 p.m.
On Thursday the first 1,000 kids, 14 & under will receive a Physicians Plus Tin Lunch Box and the first 1,000 fans will receive at Holiday Inn at the American Center Yo-Yo. It’ll also be The Simpson’s Night, as anyone named Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, or Maggie will receive a free bleacher ticket (day of game only!).
Click here to purchase tickets for any of the five remaining Mallards regular season games or please call the box office at 608.246.4277 today!
