Published On: August 8th, 2015

8-7 post game NO LOGOMadison, Wis. (August 7) – As the rain-saturated sky above Warner Park gave way to a glimmer of sunlight minutes before a 7:05 p.m. first pitch Friday night in the capital city of Wisconsin, a historic monsoon of offense ensued for a Madison Mallards (22-11, 42-26) club already riding the wave of a six-game winning streak.

Chalking up five runs against the Battle Creek Bombers in the bottom of the second inning – a frame characterized by Tony Butler’s (Madison College) three-run home run – a sweltering Madison lineup proceeded to ignite for two grand slams courtesy of Cameron Frost (Washington State) and Jake Roberts (Yakima Valley CC) en route to a ten-run, bottom of the third against their divisional counterpart.

Madison’s historic downpour of offense in the third eventually became the centerpiece to a convincing 17-7 victory over the Bombers Friday night at the Duck Pond, a Ho-Chunk Gaming Madison ‘Big Win’ of the Night that completed a two-game sweep of Battle Creek to wrap Madison’s 2015 regular-season home schedule. The Mallards have now won seven consecutive games and hold a 1.5 game lead over Green Bay for the South Division’s second-best overall record.

“It was a tight strike zone tonight, so anything they saw dead-red they jumped right on it,” Mallards assistant coach Peter Larson said of his team’s offensive explosion Friday night, which saw its run differential in the month of August skyrocket to an impressive 60:32 ratio across just six games. “Anything they hit, they really got into it. I think the whole last week has been huge for everyone. Six, seven in a row now? We’re feeling really good.”

The Bombers wouldn’t go down without a fight. Prior to Madison’s ten-run third inning, the Bombers tabbed a quartet of runs courtesy of Dre Gleason’s walk with the bases loaded, Niko Pacheco’s two-run single and Christian Helsel’s base knock to drive home Gleason against Mallards reliever Sterling Sharp (Drury University). Andrew Beckwith (Coastal Carolina) was responsible for two of Battle Creeks’ runs in the third prior to exiting after 2.1 innings.

Battle Creek then manufactured a trio of runs in the road half of the sixth to trim Madison’s lead to 16-7. Cayce Bredlau and Lin Li, who reached base against Madision with a hit by pitch and double, respectively, touched home on a three-run home run from designated hitter Dre Gleason. Tyler Frohwirth (Minnesota State) settled to retire the side in the sixth, which was the last time Battle Creek scored prior to two scoreless innings from Anthony Gonsolin (St. Mary’s College).

With their seventh consecutive victory in hand, the Mallards will regroup in preparation for a key three-game road swing in La Crosse between Saturday and Sunday to cap the regular season. First pitch for game one of Saturday’s double-header at Copeland Park is scheduled for 5:05 p.m., with the second to begin 30 minutes after the first. Follow the Mallards on Twitter @MadisonMallards or tune in to 100.5 FM ESPN Madison for full play-by-play coverage.

Tickets for potential Mallards playoff home games next week are on sale now by calling the Mallards Ticket Office at 608-246-4277 or visiting www.MallardsBaseball.com for more information. Game times for first-round South Division playoff matchups will be determined after all games on Sunday, August 9 have been completed.

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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.

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