Coming off a tight 4-3 loss in Mequon against the Chinooks, the Madison Mallards (22-14) hosted the Fond Du Lac Dock Spiders (21-13) and dominated, coming away with an 11-1 victory.

It was a good pitching matchup at first between the Mallards’ Justin Medlin (Arkansas State) and the Dock Spiders’ Ryan Ament (Mount St. Mary’s).

Medlin went 5.1 innings and struck out nine, allowing just one run. Ament pitched 4.2 innings with the Ducks finally getting to him in the third and fourth and charging him with four earned runs.

Zach Storbakken (Madison College) hit his first home run of the season to lead off the third. It was the first of three Mallards home runs on the night.

Cam Cratic (Missouri State) hit a two-run double with two outs in the 6th to put the Mallards up 6-1. In the following inning, JT Benson (Louisville) hit his seventh home run to tack on one more.

The big shot of the night came off the bat of Charlie Szykowny (UW-Stout). Szykowny hit his first home run, a grand slam, to put the Mallards up by the score they eventually won by, 11-1. It was the first grand slam of the season for the Mallards.

With tonight’s win as well as the Woodchucks loss against the Wisconsin Rapids Rafters, tomorrow night will serve as an elimination game for the Mallards. If they win, they make the playoffs and will face Fond Du Lac in the first round. If they lose, their season will end regardless of if the Woodchucks win or lose.

Tomorrow night’s regular season finale against Fond Du Lac is scheduled to start at 6:35 p.m. with Joey Kalafut (Edgewood) on the hill for the Mallards.