Series Preview
Madison Mallards (15-17) Vs. Thunder Bay Border Cats (12-18)
July 4th, 2007 @ 6:05 pm
The Mallards continue their first half ending road trip as Thunder Bay will be the next stop. Madison recently split a two game set with Waterloo Tuesday after a 5-2 win and now face a Border Cats squad that fell to Mankato Tuesday 7-3 and have lost eight of their last ten.
Left-handed throwing Michael Hutts will be on the mound for the Mallards as he enters Wednesday at 1-2 with a 4.03 ERA. In addition Hutts has thrown ten strikeouts in 22.1 innings pitched. Hutts will be making his fourth start for the Mallards this season on Wednesday.
In Hutts last start on 6/28 he went five innings of work and allowed only one earned run on four hits against Duluth. Hutts also struck out four batters and walked three. The Left-hander from Georgia Tech recieved a no-decision in a 6-3 loss that day.
The Mallards and Thunder Bay will be playing their second two game set of the �07 season starting Wednesday and up until this point have split the season series at one game a piece.
Thunder Bay has had early season success against a Mallards team that has only produced two runs all season long against the Border Cats. Catcher Danny Benedetti has gone 3-for-6 (.500) with one run scored and a .500 on-base percentage in two games against the Mallards. First baseman Terry Goddard is hitting .375 (3-8) with a run scored as well against Madison in two games played.
Outfielder Steve Boldt and infielder Brandon McCall have had hit consistently against the Mallards this season. Boldt has gone 2-for-6 (.333) with one stolen base and McCall has hit .286 (2-7) but has struck out twice.
The Mallards are 3-1 on Wednesday scheduled games this season as Thunder Bay is the complete opposite at 1-3. Offensively Madison will counter with Jordan Comadena who has gone 2-6 (.333) with a double against the Border Cats. Neil Medchill and Daniel Webb have combined to go for 2-for-4 (.500) with a double and a run batted in.
However it will be interesting to see as to who Mallards field manager C.J. Thieleke will start at catcher as Matt Behren has had great success against the Border Cats going 2-for-5 (.400) with a double and Eric Nielsen is arguably the hottest batter for the Mallards at this point as he enters Wednesday batting .333 with three doubles and five runs batted in.
