Madison dominates two-game series, closes the gap on the leaders
Madison, WI – The Mallards earned a series-sweep of the Green Bay Rockers on Friday night, blowing out the division-leaders, 12-2.
Madison took the early lead after falling behind in game one of the series on Thursday by scoring a run apiece in the 1st and 2nd innings. Back-to-back doubles off of the hard-throwing Christian Foutch was how the team broke the scoring. In the 2nd, Davis Hamilton (4-5, 3 RBI) singled home a run to make it 2-0.
Scoring settled for a few innings after the Mallards scored two. Luke Reed made his first start of the summer and gave Madison one of the best pitching performances of the year. Reed turned in five hitless innings while punching out seven. Madison would add more runs behind Reed in the 5th inning when Isaiah Jackson (2) smashed his second home run of the season. Later in the frame, Hamilton struck again with a single to score pinch-hitter Jack Tucker. The Rockers were on the board for the first time against Madison’s Chad McCann when Kendal Ewell homered to right.
More offense for the North-Siders in the 7th against the Green Bay bullpen. Canyon Brown got the scoring started with an RBI single to plate Tucker. A few batters later with the bases juiced, Jake Holcroft cleared the bases with his second double of the game, giving Madison a 9-1 edge. Madison wasn’t done after the Rockers added their second home run of the night in the 8th inning, this time hit by Kyle West (5).
Donnie Scott’s Mallards would go on to add three more runs in the bottom of the 8th against two Rockers’ pitchers. Run scoring hits from Hamilton and Estevan Moreno gave Madison a double-digit lead.
The pitching staff, which consisted of four arms on Friday night, only surrendered four total hits to the Rockers. Green Bay was held to seven combined hits in the two-game set. With Madison’s win and Wausau’s loss, the Mallards climbed to just one game back in the Great Lakes West standings with a roadtrip to Michigan on tap.
Madison will travel to the mitten state for two different two-game series. First against the Great Lakes East-leading Traverse City Pit Spitters and then two against Kalamazoo. First pitch of game one between Madison and Traverse City is scheduled for 6:05 P.M. CST/7:05 P.M. EST on Saturday night.
