{"id":27691,"date":"2026-08-01T22:13:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T03:13:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/madison-mallards\/?p=27691"},"modified":"2026-08-01T22:13:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T03:13:24","slug":"nate-novinskas-grand-slam-leads-madison-mallards-offensive-explosion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/madison-mallards\/2026\/08\/01\/nate-novinskas-grand-slam-leads-madison-mallards-offensive-explosion\/","title":{"rendered":"Nate Novinska\u2019s Grand Slam Leads Madison Mallards\u2019 Offensive Explosion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Eau Claire, WI \u2013 The Madison Mallards (36-26) powered past the Eau Claire Express (40-22) on Saturday night, earning a 16-4 victory behind a dominant offensive performance.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Jack Bello (University of Minnesota) got the Mallards on the board in the first inning with an RBI double. Eau Claire answered in the bottom half to tie the game, but Madison quickly regained the lead in the third. Bello delivered again with an RBI single, and a wild pitch later in the inning extended the Mallards\u2019 advantage to 3-1.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Madison added to its lead in the fourth inning when Ashton Quiller (Arkansas State University) hit a two-run single to make it 5-1. The Express responded with a two-run homer from Sawyer Stein (University of Iowa) in the bottom of the inning, cutting the deficit to 5-3.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Mallards broke the game open in the fifth. Brayden Zilis (Illinois State University) brought home a run with a sacrifice fly before Terek Verhage (University of St. Thomas) added an RBI single to extend the lead to 7-3. Later in the inning, Nate Novinska (University of Illinois) delivered the biggest hit of the night, launching a grand slam as part of an eight-run frame that gave Madison a 13-3 advantage.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Madison continued its offensive surge in the eighth inning. Zilis and Verhage opened the inning with back-to-back RBI singles, and Quiller capped off his four-hit night with another RBI single to push the lead to 16-3. The Express added a run in the bottom of the inning, but the Mallards secured the 16-4 victory.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Noah Musolf (Valparaiso University) earned the win on the mound for Madison, while Quinten Marsh (Stanford University) took the loss for Eau Claire.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Mallards and Express will meet again on Sunday afternoon at Warner Park. First pitch is scheduled for 4:05 p.m.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Eau Claire, WI \u2013 The Madison Mallards (36-26) powered past the Eau Claire Express (40-22) on Saturday night, earning a  [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":27692,"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-27691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-team-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.5 (Yoast SEO v26.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Nate Novinska\u2019s Grand Slam Leads Madison Mallards\u2019 Offensive Explosion - Madison Mallards<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/madison-mallards\/2026\/08\/01\/nate-novinskas-grand-slam-leads-madison-mallards-offensive-explosion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nate Novinska\u2019s Grand Slam Leads Madison Mallards\u2019 Offensive Explosion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Eau Claire, WI \u2013 The Madison Mallards (36-26) powered past the Eau Claire Express (40-22) on Saturday night, earning a [...]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/madison-mallards\/2026\/08\/01\/nate-novinskas-grand-slam-leads-madison-mallards-offensive-explosion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Madison Mallards\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-02T03:13:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/assets.northwoodsleague.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2026\/08\/mallards-final-81-1024x597.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"597\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin-madison\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin-madison\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/madison-mallards\/2026\/08\/01\/nate-novinskas-grand-slam-leads-madison-mallards-offensive-explosion\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/madison-mallards\/2026\/08\/01\/nate-novinskas-grand-slam-leads-madison-mallards-offensive-explosion\/\",\"name\":\"Nate Novinska\u2019s Grand Slam Leads Madison Mallards\u2019 Offensive Explosion - 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