THE DUCK POND ? The Madison Mallards are officially on a roll, and with a modest winning streak in hand the Ducks return to the Pond to try and keep flying high.

John Flood stayed unbeaten on the season with a win in Alexandria, as the Mallards finished off a two-game sweep of the Beetles and won their fourth straight. Flood gave up one run on 4 hits in 6.2 innings to run his record to 2-0. Kyle Yates earned his 8th save by hurling the last 1.1 innings. Joe Thaman stayed hot as he was 3-4 to lead the Mallards.

?Our confidence level is really high right now,? explained Mallards manager Darrell Handelsman. ?We?re going to need to play well because we have an awfully big home stand coming up.?

Skip is referring to a four-game home stand that includes two games versus the second-place Rochester Honkers (32-21, 12-10) and then a two-game set versus the front-running Wausau Woodchucks (34-19, 17-5). Taking three-out-of-four or making a clean sweep would go a long way to propelling the Mallards (33-20, 11-10) to the best record in the Northwoods League with less than two weeks remaining.

?This stretch is obviously huge for us,? said Mallards general manager Vern Stenman. ?It will be nice to play these big games in front of our home fans that have been tremendous all season long.?

Besides the all-important game, promotions abound as always at The Duck Pond. Tonight is Charter Communications CD-Rom Yearbook Night presented by Direct Networks and Rockethosts. The first 500 fans 14 and under will receive a Mallards CD-Rom. It is also a Home Depot Little League Night. Any Little Leaguer wearing their uniform gets in the game for free.

Plus, being a Thursday, it is a Great Dane Beer Tasting Night presented by 101.5 WIBA-FM. You can sample the latest brews from the Great Dane Brew Pub for free during the pregame.

The gates open at 5:45pm with the first pitch at 7:05pm tonight.