Battle Creek, MI – July 23, 2016. In their first road game post all-star break, the Mallards (8-7, 31-20) dropped the series opener to the Battle Creek Bombers (7-8, 25-26) by a final score of 8-5 on Saturday night.
It was a rough start for the Mallards as they fell behind 4-0 in the first inning, before Alex Hintze (UCONN) came on in relief and induced an inning ending 4-6-3 double play.
Nate Palace (Valparaiso) would get the offense going in the top of the second inning by launching a solo home run to left field. It was Palace’s fourth home run of the season, and third in the past nine games.
After the Bombers tacked on two more in the bottom of the third to push their lead to 6-1, the Mallards brought Kevin Berge (St. John Fisher) out of the bullpen for the fourth inning. Berge set the side down in order, and kept the Mallards in striking distance as the game moved on to the fifth inning.
Trailing 6-1 in the fifth, Bryce Carter (Stanford) would launch a solo home run of his own deep to left field. It was Carter’s fourth home run of the season, and came after he had already doubled earlier in the game.
Berge returned to work a scoreless fifth inning, before Alex Smith (North Florida) would come on to the mound. Smith would throw one inning of one-hit baseball,
The Mallards would tack on a run in the seventh inning, and trailed 8-3 heading into the eighth. Madison would add two runs in that frame, as Cameron Frost (Washington State) and Carter both singled in the inning and came around to score thanks to a wild pitch and a Nico Hoerner (Stanford) RBI groundout.
Madison would bring the tying run to the on-deck circle in the top of the ninth inning, but a double play ended the game as the Mallards lost for the first time this season in Battle Creek. With the loss, the Mallards record against Battle Creek fell to 5-2 on the season with the season-series finale set to take place Sunday at 3:05 pm Eastern time.
The Mallards will return to the Duck Pond on Tuesday, July 26th against the Lakeshore Chinooks at 7:05 PM. Tuesday night will be Princess Night with appearances by Queen Elsa, Princess Anna and Cinderella. It will also be a giveaway of Locksley’s self-titled album featuring ‘The Whip’ and ‘Oh Wisconsin." There will be up-tempo modern rock and roll for the whole family.
The Madison Mallards are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. Playing its 23rd season of summer collegiate baseball, 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 150 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 (DET), Curtis Granderson (NYM), Lucas Duda (NYM) and Ben Zobrist (CHC). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League portal. For more information, visit www.mallardsbaseball.com or download the new Northwoods League Mobile App on the Apple App Store and set the Mallards as your favorite team.
