By Grant Montgomery
The Rivets prevailed over the visiting Kalamazoo Growlers by a score of 11-2. It was a great team win for Rockford, as it was their most complete victory all year.
Perhaps something that was coming all along for the Rockford Rivets was an offensive explosion. In Saturday’s game against the Kalamazoo Growlers they scored a season high 11 runs while recording 12 hits, 4 of which resulting in extra bases. When asked about the overall thoughts on Saturday’s contest, manager Josh Keim said, “We’ve been waiting for the offense to produce like that all year.” Keim also explained that his club was due for a heavy offensive showing because they’ve been hitting the ball hard all year with minimal production.
By only allowing 2 runs, it was obvious that something must have clicked with the pitching staff as well. When Keim was asked about the pitching by starter Brayden Jensen, he had nothing but praise for the right hander out of The University of Illinois Springfield by saying “When Jensen was on the mound, he was great, competed all night, and filled up the strike zone.”
Another very prevalent aspect of today’s game was patience at the plate for the home team. Keim had mentioned before the game that it was something the team had talked about prior to the matchup saying, “Being patient at the plate, getting the right pitch to hit at the right time up and down the lineup is key to any team’s success.”
Jeff Heinrich, recent draftee of the San Francisco Giants was outstanding again. He was 3-5 with 2 singles, a triple, and 4 runs scored in the contest versus Kalamazoo. Keim spoke highly of the shortstop going on to say, “Heinrich has been on a tear lately, he scored 4 times for us tonight and is really good at setting the table for us.”
The Rivets look to take this positive outcome into their upcoming series against the Kokomo Jackrabbits. The Rivets and the Jackrabbits split their series earlier in the season. These teams will go at it June 9th and 10th in Rockford.
The Rockford Rivets are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. The 25-year old summer collegiate league is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 22 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, over 200 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 (MIA). 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.
