Madison, Wis. (June 28) – Behind Andrew Beckwith’s (Coastal Carolina) most impressive performance of the summer and a dose of opposite-field pop from second baseman J.J. Gould (Jacksonville), the Madison Mallards (20-14) captured a rain-shortened victory over the Wisconsin Rapids Rafters (15-16) Sunday afternoon at the Duck Pond.

The Ho-Chunk Gaming ‘Big Win’ of the Night guaranteed the Mallards would maintain sole possession of third place in the Northwoods League’s South Division heading into the final day of the season’s first half.

On the heels of a six-inning shutout performance on June 22 against the Wisconsin Woodchucks, Beckwith sustained his momentum into Sunday’s series finale against Wisconsin Rapids, pitching six scoreless innings of three-hit ball in which he walked none and struck out two. Beckwith, a 6-foot-0 righty, threw 53 of 81 pitches for strikes (65.4 percent).

“(Jason) Goldstein and I have really been on the same page,” said Beckwith after the win, “just locating fastballs and changeups to righties and lefties and mixing in the breaking ball in tough spots too. I think we had some of that (chemistry) in our last game; and that really helped us keep runners off base and keep them from scoring.”

While Beckwith ran his current scoreless innings streak to 12 with the solid outing, the Mallards offense was busy at work. After leading off the bottom of the third with a triple, Anthony Gonsolin (St. Mary’s College) scored via a throwing error by Rafters third baseman Mitchell McGeein to give Madison a 1-0 lead heading into the road half of the fourth.

Gould then stepped to the plate as leadoff hitter in the home half of the fourth inning, depositing a fastball from Rafters starting pitcher Jay Peters over the right-center wall on the first pitch he saw. Gould’s first home run of the season added an insurance run for Madison, who then led 2-0 after four complete frames.

After watching Beckwith effectively work both sides of the plate with his fastball en route to a pair of scoreless fifth and sixth innings, the Mallards tacked on two more runs in the bottom of the sixth courtesy of Chris Tschida’s (Western Illinois) RBI single and Jonathan Quintana’s (Barry University) run-producing single to give Madison a 4-0 advantage.

A 30-minute rain delay ensued during the early stages of the top of the seventh, after which the field’s unplayable conditions forced the umpires to conclude the game with a 4-0 victory for Madison.

“Bottom of the zone, throwing strikes,” Mallards field manager Donnie Scott said of Beckwith’s effectiveness Sunday afternoon. “And when he did fall behind, he recovered. He was filling up the zone and keeping everything down. He adds a lot of deception with his angles. It’s kind of what we knew before; if he can do those things, he’ll be tough.”

With the victory behind them, the Mallards will turn their attention toward Monday’s road double-header against the La Crosse Loggers. First pitch for game one is scheduled for 12:05 p.m. from Copeland Park. Game two is slated for a 7:05 p.m. start time. Follow along for play-by-play action courtesy of 100.5 FM ESPN Madison.

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The Madison Mallards are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. Playing its 22nd season of summer collegiate baseball in 2015, the Northwoods League is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 18 teams, drawing significantly more fans, in a friendly ballpark experience, than any league of its kind. A valuable training ground for coaches, umpires and front office staff, more than 120 Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (WAS) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (CWS), Jordan Zimmermann (WAS), Curtis Granderson (NYM), Lucas Duda (NYM) and Ben Zobrist (OAK). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League Website.  For more information, visit www.MallardsBaseball.com.