Madison, Wis. (July 8) – The Madison Mallards (5-2, 25-17) put the finishing touches on a two-game sweep of the Willmar Stingers (4-4, 27-15) with a 5-2 victory over their interleague opponent Wednesday night at Bill Taunton Stadium. J.J. Gould (Jacksonville) delivered his second home run of the summer to ignite Madison’s lineup, while Dalton D’Spain (Texas A&M Corpus Christ) tallied his team-best fifth win in conceding just one run across five strong innings of work.
After a scoreless first frame, the Mallards captured the contest’s initial lead through Collin Theroux’s (San Joaquin Delta CC) solo home run in the road half of the second. Sean Beesly responded with a run-producing single to score Eddie Estrada in the bottom half of the first, however, which knotted the score at 1-1. But Madison was also quick to respond, witnessing Gould drive home himself and Logan Regnier (Central Michigan) via his second home run of the 2015 season in the top of the third.
D’Spain pitched brilliantly in his seventh start, striking out four batters and allowing just four hits across his five innings of work for the Mallards, which eventually set him up to capture the winning decision. Logan Browning (Florida) came on in relief of D’Spain from the bullpen and proceeded to whiff three hitters sans a hit allowed across three frames. Madison then plated two more runners in the seventh courtesy of RBI singles from Ro Coleman (Vanderbilt) and Jean Ramirez (Illinois State).
Down 5-1 with Mike Kaelin (Buffalo) on the mound, the Stingers manufactured a run in their last frame thanks to an RBI single from Dan Motl to score Beesly. After allowing the earned run, however, Kaelin settled down, retiring Reagan Fowler with a groundout to shortstop Tony Butler (Madison College) to seal Madison’s 5-2 victory. Though he did not record a strikeout in his relief appearance, Kaelin increased his season save total to six with his late effort on Wednesday night.
With the series sweep and 3-2 road-trip behind them, field manager Donnie Scott and the Mallards will direct their attention toward tomorrow’s 7:05 p.m. tilt with the Kenosha Kingfish (8-1, 31-14) at Warner Park. Thursday’s game will feature a Motorcycle Maynard Bobblehead Giveaway presented by WKOW-TV at the front gates of the stadium while supplies last and a pre-game skydiving and tandem skydive giveaway presented by Great Lakes Skydiving. For tickets, call the Mallards ticket office at 608-246-4277 or visit www.MallardsBaseball.com for more information.
###
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.
