Chris Barker (MATC) was on base all four plate appearances tonight in going 3-for-3 with a double, two singles, and a hit-by-pitch . Here Barker is shown wearing a throwback jersey on June 13, 2009 in a tribute to the Madison Muskies who played in the capital city from 1982 to 1993.
St. Cloud, MN – August 4, 2009. The Mallards won their third straight game by scoring an eye-popping eight runs, all coming with two-outs, to up-end the fading St. Cloud River Bats 8-3 at Joe Faber Field and move Madison 1.5 games ahead of the La Crosse Loggers who lost for a third consecutive time.
The Mallards flew out of the gates quickly tonight in posting a four-spot on the scoreboard in their first at-bat.
After hot-hitting Jimmy Parque (St. John’s) led off the opening frame by getting hit by a pitch, John Hicks (Virginia) then laid down a perfect bunt to sacrifice Parque to second. Jerrud Sabourin (Indiana) would then fly out to left field for out number two. Madison would need some clutch hitting to keep the inning alive, and did they ever. The next batter in Joe Patterson (Texas A&M) didn’t need to, as he was pelted with a pitch to advance to first base. Up came Manager CJ Thieleke’s number-five hitter in Troy Channing (St. Mary’s) and the third baseman didn’t dissapoint in lacing a double to score Parque and put the Mallards on the boad first. All-Star Harold Riggins (NC State) then hit a ground ball to River Bats third baseman Tony Renda (Juniperro High School), who badly overthrew first base to allow two runners in Patterson and Channing to score. The clutch hitting continued one more batter as Jacob Esch (Georgia Tech) hit a double of his own to score Riggins and give the Mallards a commanding 4-0 lead after the first three outs of the contest.
After Cody Winiarski (MATC) sat down the River Bats in order in the first, the Mallards offense was back at it again in the second as the first two hitters in Chris Barker (MATC) and Parque led off the inning with walks. It was evident after Parque’s at-bat that St. Cloud had a plan to not give the center fielder anything relatively good to hit. Madison would need some clutch hitting again this frame as Hicks and Sabourin were quickly retired for the first two outs. Luckily, Patterson was up to the task and belted a single to score Barker and give the Mallards a 5-0 lead.
The River Bats provided good two-out hitting of their own in the bottom of the second inning as Zac Richard (Xavier) singled in Matt Fanelli (Washington State) who was on with a base-hit and advanced by stealing second base. St. Cloud still trailed by four runs at 5-1.
And so the beat went on in the Mallards third, as McCormick sat down the first two batters he faced in Riggins and Esch. However, he would run into trouble as Alex Jones (Northern Illinois) singled and Barker added another two-out hit by lacing a double past a diving attempt by center fielder Brian Humphries (Pepperdine) to score Jones and give the Mallards a 6-1 lead. That double was already Barker’s second hit of the game. McCormick would sit down the next hitter in Parque, but that would be his last work of the evening as right-hander Matt Summers (UC Irvine) would relieve him in the next inning.
St. Cloud would threaten in the fourth inning by putting two men on with two outs, but Winiarski was able to induce a 4-6-3 double play by Zach Maxfield (Florida Gulf Coast) to end the frame.
At 8:50 p.m., even though the River Bats’ players probably weren’t aware, their radio play-by-play announcer certainly was and let the bad news be known; the first-place Rochester Honkers had just held on to defeat the Thunder Bay Border Cats by a score of 8-7 to move their lead over St. Cloud to 2 games.
In the sixth, St. Cloud would get a run back on a Adam Weisenburger single to score Fanelli who led off the inning with a single of his own and advanced all the way to third base on a throwing error by second baseman Esch on a ball hit by Maxfield. The new score now read; Mallards 6, River Bats 2.
The River Bats would put together another serious threat in the seventh inning when All-Star Danny Oh (California-Berkeley) walked with one out and Renda and Fanelli followed with consecutive base-hits to load the bases. Dan Betteridge (Rutgers) then did his job by hitting a sacrifice fly to center field to score Oh and move St. Cloud within three runs. However, Mallards reliever J.R. Graham (Santa Clara), now in his second inning of work, was able to bear down and get Richard to fly out to left field to end the frame.
Madison would add some insurance in the eighth as Barker hit a, you guessed it, two-out single to keep the inning alive. That hit was his third of the game. Then, after Barker stole second base, Parque clutched-up and hit a single to score the right-fielder and give the Mallards a four-run lead right back to make the score 7-3. However, Hicks’ impressive eight-game hitting streak would end as the left fielder would fly out to center to complete a rare 0-for-4 performance.
Even though he’s scheduled to start Thursday’s game against the Honkers, left-hander Matt Jansen (Purdue) entered the game in the bottom of the eighth to try to preserve the Mallards lead. After walking leadoff man Maxfield, Jansen settled in nicely and recorded three straight outs to end the inning and his 22-pitch night.
Madison would tack on another run in the ninth as replacement catcher Tyson Blaser (Iowa) was able to advance on an error by shortstop Betteridge and moved over to second base on a wild pitch by Summers. He then scored on a Riggins’ RBI single to give the Mallards an 8-3 advantage. Riggins is now one RBI away from tying the franchise mark of 48 set last season by left-handed hitting Rob Lyerly (Charlotte).
It was now time for flame-thrower Denny Clement (Texas A&M). Filling in for teammate Dan Burawa (St. John’s), who left the team today due to personal reasons, Clement sat down the first two batters in Oh and last night’s infamous star in Renda, but then allowed Fanelli to advance on a single and Betteridge to get on with a walk. No worries, as he was then able to get Richard to strike out swinging to end the threat and give the Mallards the 8-3 victory.
Winiarski picked up his sixth win (6-4) of the season after allowing one run on four hits in five innings of work. The All-Star walked four batters and only struck out one.
River Bats’ starter McCormick picked up his first loss of the season (0-1) after allowing six runs on six hits in three innings of work.
The Mallards now travel south to play a two-game set versus the North Division-leading Rochester Honkers with the first game beginning Wednesday at 7:05 p.m. Left-hander Nick Rice (MATC), set to transfer to NC State in the fall, will start on the mound for Madison.
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Injury Report:
As was first reported this morning, All-Star center fielder and Sun Prairie-native Kurtis Muller (Iowa) will miss the remainder of the season due to a leg injury that ocurred on July 25 against the Waterloo Bucks. Muller was hit in his calf muscle by a pitch and hasn’t been able to put much weight on the leg ever since. He will take two months off to rest and rehabilitate in time for the Hawkeye’s fall season. Muller was hitting a league second-best .355 with 24 RBI and 19 stolen bases in 51 games. He was also named the MVP for his performance in July’s Northwoods League All-Star Game and the Mallards “real team leader” in a player vote.
Ryan Spilborghs Update
The Mallards lone big leaguer in Colorado Rockies outfielder Ryan Spilborghs (Santa Barbara) was 2-for-4 with two runs scored in his team’s 8-3 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies to keep the Rockies one game ahead of the San Francisco Giants in the race for the Wild Card.
We spoke with Spilborghs in June at nearby Miller Park and this is what he had to say. Go ahead, you can turn your computer’s sound up at work…we checked with your boss already.
