Madison, Wis. – After claiming their fifth-straight victory to open up the 2015 Northwoods League season Sunday in Wisconsin Rapids, the Madison Mallards on Monday will make a quick turnaround to Mequon, Wis., for the opener of a two-game series with the Lakeshore Chinooks. First pitch is scheduled for 11:35 a.m. from Kapco Park.

Mallards field manager Donnie Scott has named Westin Wuethrich (Madison College) as the Mallards starter for today’s opener. Wuethrich, a Greenwood, Wis., native, went 6-2 with a 2.73 ERA across 12 starts (69.1 IP) during his sophomore collegiate campaign this spring, holding batters to a .209 average with 57 strikeouts and just one home run allowed.

To counter, the Chinooks will send Gavin Downs (Purdue) to the hill for his second start of the season. Downs, a 6-foot-0  right-handed pitcher originally from Fort Wayne, Ind., ceded one earned run over six innings in his first start of the summer. As a junior with the Boilermakers this spring, he went 5-4 with a 6.60 ERA over 61.1 frames.

Tschida to the Rescue: Chris Tschida (Western Illinois) recorded his third consecutive multi-hit game Sunday afternoon, going 2-for-5 with a double and two runs batted in. Coming into today’s game, Tschida’s seven runs batted in tie for second-most in the league, six of which have come with two outs and runners in scoring position.

Alone at the Top: The Mallards enter today’s road matchup with a 1.5 game lead in the South Division, much ado to their stellar combination of hitting and pitching. As a unit, Madison holds true to the highest batting average (.294) and lowest earned run average (1.80) in the league and have out-scored their opponents 43-12 through five games.

The Mallards will return to the Duck Pond on Wednesday, June 3 against the Green Bay Bullfrogs on Joey's Song Epilepsy Awareness Night. There will be a pre-game skydiving and tandem skydive giveaway presented by Great Lakes Skydiving, with Mallards players wearing purple jerseys to be auctioned off during the game.

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The Madison Mallards are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. Playing its 22nd season of summer collegiate baseball in 2015, the Northwoods League is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 18 teams, drawing significantly more fans, in a friendly ballpark experience, than any league of its kind. A valuable training ground for coaches, umpires and front office staff, more than 120 Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (WAS) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (CWS), Jordan Zimmermann (WAS), Curtis Granderson (NYM), Lucas Duda (NYM) and Ben Zobrist (OAK). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League Website.  For more information, visit www.MallardsBaseball.com