LOVES PARK, Ill. – The Rockford Rivets earned their third consecutive win against the Kenosha Kingfish with a 15-14, extra inning victory on Friday at Rivets Stadium.
The Kingfish rallied from an 11-run deficit to force extra innings, but Rockford’s Ricardo Ramirez singled home David Cronin with the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning.
Zach Olszewski (1-0) earned a win in his first outing for the Rivets with 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief. Ryan Orr (0-1) took the loss in relief in his Kenosha debut.
The Rivets’ bats were on fire from the start. They scored seven runs in the first inning, two in the second and five more in the fourth to build a 14-3 advantage. Ramirez was 2-for-5 with a walk and four RBI.
The Kingfish rallied with four runs in the sixth inning, one in the seventh, four in the eighth and two in the ninth. Nick Kanavas tied the game at 14-14 with a sacrifice fly in the ninth.
In the Rockford 10th inning, Cronin led off with a single to right field, advanced to second base on a sacrifice and to third on an errant pickoff throw by Orr. With one out, Ramirez singled to left through a drawn-in infield.
The Rivets finish the four game series with Kenosha at 6:35 p.m. Saturday on Fireworks Night at Rivets Stadium. Broadcasts and live streams can be found at NorthwoodsLeague.com.
Rockford is a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League, which will play its 23rd season of summer collegiate baseball in 2016. 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 150 Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (Washington Nationals) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (Chicago White Sox), Jordan Zimmermann (Detroit Tigers), Curtis Granderson (New York Mets), Lucas Duda (Mets) and Ben Zobrist (Chicago Cubs). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League Website, NorthwoodsLeague.com. For more information, visit RockfordRivets.com.