LOVES PARK, Ill. – Drake Robison was magnificent in eight innings of one-hit, shutout baseball and the Rivets held on in the ninth inning as Rockford completed a sweep of the Madison Mallards with a 3-1 win on Friday night at Rivets Stadium.
The Rivets got all of their runs in the third inning against Mallards reliever Chase Hoag (1-2). With one out, David Cronin (Illinois-Chicago) singled and Texas Tech’s Hunter Hargrove and Ryan Long both walked. That set the stage for the first hit and first runs batted in since joining the team for Kian O’Brien (Madison Tech), who singled home Cronin and Hargrove for a 2-0 lead. Cory Wright (Parkland CC) then singled home Long to make it 3-0.
From there, it was all about the Machesney Park native Robison (5-2), who allowed a leadoff single in the third to Nelson Maldonado (Florida) in his eight innings of work. The righthander walked one and struck out four.
Madison threatened the lead in the ninth. After two walks and an error, Zach Olszewski (Bethune-Cookman) hit Noah Cummings with a pitch to force a run home before retiring Cam Comer on a fly to left to earn his sixth save of the season.
The Rivets will open two game series against the Kalamazoo Growlers at Homer Stryker Field on Saturday night at 5:05 p.m. 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.
