LOVES PARK, Ill. – The Rockford Rivets won their second consecutive game by a score of 6-1 against the Green Bay Bullfrogs at Rivets stadium Wednesday night to improve to 2-0 on the season.
In just two games, Rockford managed to outscore Green Bay 15-1 in the two-game series as they hit the road for a four-game trip to Fon du Loc and Lakeshore.
After the Rivets jumped to an early 1-0 lead, Green Bay answered in the top of the fourth when designated hitter Leo Perez singled home Cooper Morrison who had tripled to lead off the inning. Rockford was quick to respond in the bottom half of the inning when left fielder Braden Mosley scored on yet another passed ball to put the Rivets ahead 2-1.
The win was highlighted by a huge fifth inning after second baseman Joe Butler hit the team’s first homerun of the season. Three additional runs then followed Butler’s homer as Mosley knocked in a run and Pat Loeffler added two more with an RBI single.
Rivets manager Brian Smith was happy with the way Butler came up clutch today.
“Joe jumped on an early one, which is always nice to see a guy in the nine-hole go out and get one,” Smith said. “We didn’t really take the best swings today, we had a lot of weak contact and that’s something the boys will get used to when swinging the wood bats.”
Rockford had another dominate pitching performance due to the combination of Chase Kueter and Nathan Schneidermann. This isn’t the first time these two have pitched on the same field together. The duo play their college ball at the University of Dubuque where they both helped lead the Spartans to their first conference championship in school history.
Kueter (1-0) pitched six innings while striking out six batters and walking only one. Schneidermann came in for the last three innings of the game and continued to pick up where Kueter left off. He didn’t surrender a hit in three innings while also managing to strikeout six of the nine batters he faced. This resulted in him picking up his first save of the season.
“Chase has a long history of being a strike thrower so knowing he was going to go deep in the game, always helps early in the year when we might be unsure of our bullpen,” Smith Said. “He and Nate played together in Dubuque and that’s how they won their conference tournament and made it to their regional, those two guys put the team on their back.”
After winning the first two games of the year at home, Smith is hoping the team continues to form chemistry that will benefit them throughout the rest of the season.
“The first road trip is really when you start to mesh as a team,” Smith said. You’re stuck on a bus, stuck in a hotel, in a town nobody’s ever heard of and the guys start to have a little fun with each other and really start to mesh.”
The Rivets start their four game road trip against the Fond du Lac Dog Spiders in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin tomorrow at 6:35 pm.
Tickets for the Rockford Rivets are available for purchase, including our 5-Game Pack which now costs only $60. Tickets can be purchased by calling the Rivets’ Ticket Office at (815) 240-4159.
The Rockford Rivets are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. Entering its 25th anniversary season, the Northwoods League is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 20 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 185 former Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (WAS), two-time World Series Champions Ben Zobrist (CHC) and Brandon Crawford (SFG) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (BOS), Jordan Zimmermann (DET) and Curtis Granderson (TOR). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League portal. For more information, visit www.rockfordrivets.com or download the new Northwoods League Mobile App on the Apple App Store or on Google Play and set the Rivets as your favorite team.