Cody Winiarski (MATC), who is transferring to the University of Virginia in the fall, will make his eleventh start tonight. The All-Star is 5-4 with a 2.18 ERA over over 66 innings thus far.
Last night’s Box Score
St. Cloud, MN – August 4, 2009. As the Madison Mallards and St. Cloud River Bats woke up this morning they no doubt had to ask themselves, “What happened last night?”
With one out in the bottom of the ninth and the bases full of River Bats with the Mallards leading 7-4, a torrential downpour halted action with third baseman Tony Renda (Juniperro High School) at the plate. However, as the rain quickly made the field into a soupy mess, the umpires called the game and the contest was deemed official to give Madison the win and move the team into sole possession of first place as La Crosse lost earlier to the Battle Creek Bombers by a score of 5-4.
Madison and St. Cloud will do battle once again tonight in the season series-ending game beginning at 7:05 p.m. at Joe Faber Field. The Mallards have won all three contests thus far against the River Bats.
Toeing the mound tonight for Madison will be Northwoods League Mid-Season All-Star Cody Winiarski (MATC) who is 5-4 with a 2.18 ERA over 66 innings, including 10 starts. He comes into Tuesday’s contest having lost two straight decisions, and posted his shortest outing of the season in his last start, a three-inning, four-walk performance in the team’s 10-2 loss to the Loggers on July 29 at the “Duck Pond.”
Meanwhile, the River Bats will counter with right-hander Damon McCormick (Valparaiso) who will make his second start of the season. In his lone start on July 30 against the Duluth Huskies he allowed one earned run in five innings, while striking out two in the no-decision.
The Mallards will look to continue to ride the hot bats of Jimmy Parque (St. John’s) and All-Star Jerrud Sabourin (Indiana) who each had four hits in Monday night’s rain-shortened ballgame. In Parque’s last at-bat he hooked his first home run of the season to right field to give Madison a 7-2 lead heading into the ninth inning.
Also swinging the bat well is Joe Patterson (Texas A&M) who is hitting .412 (7-for-17) with 5 RBI and John Hicks (Virginia) who is hitting .409 (9-for-22) with four runs scored in their last five games.
In other action around the league important to these two teams, the Loggers will continue their two-game series in Battle Creek in a 6:05 p.m. (CST) contest while the North Division leading Rochester Honkers, now 1.5 games ahead of St. Cloud, take on the Thunder Bay Border Cats at that same time.
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Catch tonight’s action by dialing in to FM 100.5 ESPN or by visiting espnmadison.com for a live stream of the game. Want live video? Simply click on “Game Day” on Mallardsbaseball.com to begin your viewing experience today!
Madison returns home to the “Duck Pond” for four games beginning this Friday, August 7.
Friday’s promotions include the Boston’s Restaurant & Sports Bar Mini Bat giveaway (first 500 kids) and the Dejope Gaming Little Bit of Vegas Night with a special appearance by The King!
Plenty of great seats are still available for all four of the Mallards remaining home games, and can be purchased online by clicking here or by calling the box office at 608.246.4277 today!
