By: Larry Larson

The Rockford Rivets bounced back from a slow start and 4-1 loss in game one to take game two with a 5-1 victory over Battle Creek on Monday night at C.O. Brown Stadium.

In game one, the Rivets once again stumbled into an early deficit, as Jared Herzog (Fr, Rockford University) let up two unearned runs in the bottom of the 1st inning.

While Herzog would settle in, going five innings and not allowing an earned run, the Rockford lineup couldn’t get going and left 8 runners on base throughout the contest.

The Bombers scratched across two insurance runs in the bottom of the 6th inning off Ben Vitas (Fr, Central Michigan) in his Rivets debut.

Rockford threatened in the 7th, loading the bases and scoring a run on a sacrifice fly by Jake Donahue (Fr, Central Michigan), but the game would end with the tying run at the plate.

In game two, Noah DeLuga (Fr, Minnesota) made his first start of the season. In similar fashion to game one, Rockford let up a run in the 1st inning on an RBI single by Heath Hood.

The Rivets would come back with a vengeance in the 2nd inning, tallying four runs. The scoring started with a single by Greg Zigler (So, Missouri State) which led to an error by the left fielder to score Donahue, followed by a passed ball that scored Jared Cushing (R-Fr, Xavier).

A Brody Harding (So, Illinois) groundout pushed across another run, and Peter Fusek (Fr, MATC) came around to score on another passed ball to make it a 4-1 lead.

From there, DeLuga dominated, not surrendering a hit in his final four innings of work, striking out 7 along the way.

Zigler picked up an RBI single in the 6th, scoring Donahue again to give the Rivets some extra padding.

JT Scara went to the bullpen in the bottom of the 6th, as Bradley Deboutte (R-So, Wright State) tossed a 1-2-3 frame, and Chan Yao-Ming (Jr, Kainan College, Taiwan) picked up the save in the bottom of the 7th.

With the 1-1 split, Rockford’s record moves to 7-8 on the summer.

The Rivets and Bombers will be back in action Tuesday for a traditional, 9-inning contest starting at 6:35 Eastern time at C.O. Brown Stadium.

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The Rockford Rivets are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. The Northwoods League is the proven leader in the development of elite college baseball players. Having completed its’ 27^th season, the Northwoods 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 250 Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including three-time All-Star and 2016 Roberto Clemente Award winner Curtis Granderson, three-time Cy Young Award winner and World Series Champion Max Scherzer (WAS), two-time World Series Champions Ben Zobrist and Brandon Crawford (SFG) and World Series Champion Chris Sale (BOS). As well as 2019 Rookie of the Year and Home Run Derby Champion Pete Alonso (NYM) and MLB Gold Glove finalist and 2019 Second Team All-MLB shortstop Marcus Semien (TOR). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League website. 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.