GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Rockford Rivets rallied on Wednesday night to take a late lead, but a two-run ninth inning ended controversially as the Green Bay Bullfrogs swept the Rivets with a 4-3 win at Joannes Stadium.
Rockford starter Trevor Kiminski (Indian Hills CC) and Green Bay starter Luke Lind (North Dakota State) were locked into a pitchers’ duel until the bottom of the sixth. Quincy Nieporte (Florida State) broke the scoreless tie with a long home run to left center. Later in the inning, Parker Coss (UC-Irvine) scored on a throwing error to extend the lead to 2-0. Kiminski gave up only one earned run and five hits in 5 2/3 innings of work.
While Kiminski was having his best start of the summer, Lind was stifling the Rivets’ offense through seven innings. But in the eighth, Kian O’ Brien (Madison Tech) led off the inning with a single, and Neal Tyrell (Lewis University) tied the game with a long two-run home run to left field with two outs to knot it at 2-2. After Ryan Long (Texas Tech) singled against Lind and stole second, Hunter Hargrove (Texas Tech) gave the Rivets their first lead of the night with a single to left field off reliever Blake Rutherford (St. Norbert College) to make it 3-2. Rutherford (1-0) would end up with the win by pitching 1 1/3 scoreless innings.
In the ninth, Joe Romero (Albany) walked Colton Onstott, who was immediately replaced by Chris Botsoe (Louisville) as a pinch-runner. After a sacrifice bunt, Austin Clemons (Louisville) singled to put runners at the corners. Marcus Shoemaker (Lenoir-Rhyne) tied the game with a single to left, and after an error, Nieporte hit a fly ball off Romero (1-3) to center field. Connor Perry caught the ball and threw to the plate, where Clemons was called safe to end the game. Both Braden Williams (Texas Tech) and Romero were subsequently ejected for arguing the call after the game was already over.
The Rivets will open up the final homestand of the regular season against the Wisconsin Rapids Rafters at Rivets Stadium Thursday night at 6:35. 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.