Madison, WI – Cole Kosciusko (UC Santa Barbara) etched his name into Mallards lore Thursday night, crushing a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth to send Warner Park into a frenzy and give the Madison Mallards (32-22) a thrilling 7-6 victory over the Fond du Lac Dock Spiders (27-30).<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t an ideal start for Madison, as the Dock Spiders came out swinging in the first inning. Landon Mensik (Xavier University) opened the scoring with an RBI single to put Fond du Lac ahead 1-0. Another run crossed on a groundout, before Nate McHugh (Creighton University) capped the rally with an RBI double to push it to 3-0.<\/p>\n
The score held steady until the fifth inning, when the Mallards\u2019 offense came to life. Frankie Carney (UC Irvine) delivered a two-run single to trim the deficit to 3-2. After advancing to second on a balk, Carney broke for third\u2014and when the throw sailed into left field, he came around to score and tie the game at 3-3.<\/p>\n
The Dock Spiders responded quickly in the sixth. Thomas Googins (Princeton University) worked a bases-loaded walk to reclaim the lead at 4-3, and Reese McCarthy (University of Massachusetts) followed with a two-run double to stretch the advantage to 6-3.<\/p>\n
Aiden Arnett (Virginia Tech) got the Mallards right back in it with a two-run home run in the bottom of the sixth, cutting the lead to 6-5. Then in the seventh, Carson Hansen (University of Kentucky) came through with a pinch-hit RBI single to tie the game at six.<\/p>\n
With two outs in the ninth inning, Kosciusko became the hero, sending a 1-0 pitch a mile into the Madison night. His walk-off home run lifted the Mallards to a dramatic 7-6 victory. He was swarmed by his teammates at home plate, as Madison earned its eighth win in nine games. <\/p>\n
Keaton Fenn (Southeastern Community College) earned the win on the mound for Madison, while Ben Kasten (Madison College) took the loss for Fond du Lac. <\/p>\n
The Mallards head to Fond du Lac on Saturday night to face the Dock Spiders. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 p.m. Madison returns home to Warner Park to face the Wisconsin Rapids Rafters on Tuesday night at 6:05 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Madison, WI – Cole Kosciusko (UC Santa Barbara) etched his name into Mallards lore Thursday night, crushing a walk-off home […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":26508,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-team-news"],"yoast_head":"\n