Madison avenges walk-off loss behind high-powered offense
Madison, WI – An early barrage of runs fueled Madison’s 18-4 blowout win over Kenosha on Wednesday night in the team’s return to Warner Park after the six-game road trip.
The bottom of the 1st inning charged the offense for the rest of the game. The team had a patient, but strong approach against right-hander Alec Sparks for Kenosha. Sparks wasn’t able to make it through the first frame. He walked the first four batters of the contest, giving the Mallards the early lead. Ryan Sprock, who earned Northwoods League Player of the Night honors with his 4-4 debut adding two walks, notched the first hit for the team in a full-count which scored another. Two more runs came home to score in the inning on a Canyon Brown walk and a Jake Goolsby ground out.
After two more scoreless innings tossed by Mallards’ starter Bryce Leedle, Madison would add three more from Goolsby. His double cleared the loaded bases to give Madison a touchdown lead. Leedle’s shutout day was done following the top of the 4th when he stranded three Kingfish with a backwards punch out of Mason Morris.
Two more Mallards’ runs scored in the bottom half of the 4th on singles from Sprock and Korbyn Dickerson to extend the lead to 9-0. The fun for the North-Siders wasn’t done there. Madison tallied another four runs in the 5th with Sprock’s third and fourth RBIs of the day with a double that one-hopped the wall and a Dickerson bounce out.
A night after the thrilling walk-off win for the Kingish, their offense couldn’t muster any runs against Leedle but were able to score against reliever Cam Clines. All four runs for Kenosha were scored in the top of the 5th and 6th innings, three of which came on back-to-back home runs hit by Reagan Burford and Lance Trippel. The other two arms for Madison, Nick Argento and Will Morris, threw three combined scoreless innings to finish out the game.
Before Morris could enter for the 9th, he had to wait for the Mallards’ offense to finish feasting against Kingfish’ pitching. The team routed Kaden Pfeffer in the home half of the 8th where they scored five runs generated off of four hits, an error and two walks. Sprock, Dickerson, and Brown all drove in runs in the inning.
The Mallards had 32 overall baserunners on the basepaths tonight at Warner Park in their rout of Kenosha. Madison was given 17 free-passes, 16 walks and one hit-batsman. The team had season-high runs scored, hits, walks, and runners on base in the dominant win.
Madison wraps up the two-game homestand by beginning their second series of the year against Wausau after a season-opening split against the Woodchucks. First pitch is scheduled for 6:05 P.M. on Thursday night after a much needed rebound after dropping two consecutive.
