{"id":7596,"date":"2015-08-03T14:31:47","date_gmt":"2015-08-03T14:31:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/madison-mallards\/?p=7596"},"modified":"2015-08-03T14:31:47","modified_gmt":"2015-08-03T14:31:47","slug":"goebel-mallards-look-to-sink-anchors-for-fourth-straight-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/madison-mallards\/2015\/08\/03\/goebel-mallards-look-to-sink-anchors-for-fourth-straight-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Goebel, Mallards Look to Sink Anchors for Fourth Straight Win"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\"8-3Madison, Wis. (August 3) <\/strong>– Notching their third consecutive victory Sunday night in Wausau to conclude a perfect weekend in which they out-scored their opponents 33-6, the Madison Mallards (18-11, 38-26) will look to continue their hot-swinging ways on Monday when they return to the Duck Pond for the opener of a two-game home set with the Alexandria Blue Anchors (16-15, 28-38). Tonight’s 7:05 p.m. contest will mark the beginning of the final week of the regular season for the Mallards, who hold a two-game lead of second place in the South Division’s second-half standings.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tLast night, the Mallards completed a season sweep of their divisional rival at Athletic Park by an 8-2 mark through a combination of stellar pitching and key hits in opportune moments. Sterling Sharpe (Drury University) tabbed a winning decision in his first start of the summer for the Mallards staff, supplying five innings of hit-less ball to go with seven punch-outs. Cameron Frost (Washington State) provided his second home run since July 27 and plated a game-high three batters, while Jean Ramirez (Illinois State) went 1-for-5 with a run scored to extend his hit streak to six games.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMadison’s pitching staff, which boasts the best strikeout-to-walk ratio of any Northwoods League unit in 2015 (2.54), tonight will look to benefit from a third consecutive quality start from its rotation when Spencer Goebel (Spring Arbor Univ.) toes the rubber for his second outing of the summer. Goebel, a 6-foot-2 right-hander coming off his junior collegiate campaign, recorded a winning decision in his first start of the season on July 28 at Kalamazoo for allowing no runs across five innings against the Growlers. Through six total innings in 2015, Goebel has surrendered just two hits.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tGoebel will have his work cut out for him against an upstart Alexandria lineup. The month of July saw the Blue Anchors hoard 22 home runs across 29 contests en route to a team slugging percentage of .414 during that span – up from just .365 in the month of June. Perhaps no Blue Anchors hitter has contributed more to Alexandria’s improved play in the second half than Trooper Reynolds (Dallas Baptist Univ.). A late addition to the Blue Anchors roster, Reynolds has managed a .411 batting average and 1.272 OPS with six home runs in 15 games (56 AB) for Alexandria’s offense.\n<\/p>\n