By Grant Montgomery 

 

It was Bark in the Park day at Rivets Stadium, as Rockford fell to the visiting Battle Creek Bombers by a score of 7-3.  This cools the screw off, as they came into the contest playing very good baseball which resulted in five straight wins.  

 

As thunderstorms came through the area right around scheduled first pitch, it was questioned whether the game would be played or not.  This would have been a dilemma for both sides, as it was their last match-up in the first half of the season. After the Rockford’s stadium operations team put in some great work on the field, the game started around 4:15, resulting in a three hour and ten minute rain delay.  

 

Jordan Nelson, out of Dubuque University got the nod from Rivets Manager Josh Keim.  He came out of this one with the loss, which brings his record on the season to 1-1. His pitching line was 5.0 IP, 8 H, 5 R (3ER), and 2 strikeouts.  It was not the greatest showing by the right hander, as his ERA now sits at 3.64 on the year. Walter Talcott got the start for Battle Creek, and his performance was more than serviceable, as he got the win on the afternoon.  He now owns a 2-2 record, paired with a 5.04 ERA.  

 

Through four innings, Jordan Nelson was cruising, as he had not allowed a run until this point.  In the 5th inning of Sunday’s contest, the Bombers roughed him up for five runs in the inning. This put them in firm control of the game.  They also added two more in the 6th inning, which ended up being insurance runs.  

 

Perhaps the biggest impact on the game was the number of stolen bases by Battle Creek base runners.  They gave Rivets catcher Mason Minzey trouble on the afternoon, as they racked up eight stolen bases. With all the traffic on the base paths, the Bombers were able to score runs seemingly at will.  

 

The Rivets offense was rather quiet on the afternoon.  Run number one came in the bottom of the 2nd inning when Josh Dudden reached base on a single, and then scored on a Walter Talcott wild pitch.  To find the Rivets final two runs in the box score, one would have to look in the 6th inning. After back to back singles from Tom Josten and Matt Higgins, they both came around to score on RBI hits by Josh Dudden and Mason Minzey respectively.     

 

The Rivets look to get back into the win column tomorrow night against the Kokomo Jackrabbits at 6:35.  Going into Monday’s game, the Rivets find themselves two games back in the first half standings as the Traverse City Pit Spitters lead the Great Lakes East division of the Northwoods League. 

 

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.