By: Larry Larson

A familiar story haunted the Rivets again in their 9-1 loss to the Wisconsin Woodchucks on Sunday at Athletic Park.

After working a 1-2-3 1st inning, Rivets starter Ryan O’Reilly (Gr, Illinois-Chicago) was lit up for 8 runs on 8 hits in the 2nd inning, opening up a deficit from which Rockford couldn’t recover, leading to the team’s fourth consecutive loss.

The defeat brings the Rivets’ record to 8-12. The 8 runs in the 2nd inning brings Rockford to 57 runs allowed in the first two innings of games this season.

Rockford couldn’t get much of anything going off of Woodchucks starter Nate Madej (R-So, Florida Southern College), who looked dominant in 6 innings of work – allowing 1 run on 5 hits while striking out 12 on his way to the win.

The Rivets pushed across their lone run in the 6th inning, as Tyeler Hawkins (R-Fr, Louisville) came home from third on an RBI single by Jared Cushing (R-Fr, Xavier).

Hawkins highlighted Rockford’s offensive effort, going 3-4 with three singles.

After O’Reilly was chased from the game after 1.2 innings, three Rivets’ bullpen arms combined for 7.1 innings of one run ball.

Elijah Sanchez (Jr, Northern Illinois) recorded 2.1 scoreless frames after taking over for O’Reilly, not surrendering a hit.

Lefty Tyler Horvath (R-So, Illinois-Springfield) followed, allowing a run on just 1 hit while striking out 4 in his 2 frames of work.

Jake Armstrong (R-So, UW-Milwaukee) bounced back from a tough outing in his first appearance of the summer on Friday night by hurling 2 scoreless innings, allowing just two singles.

The Rivets will play 8 of their next 10 games at Rivets Stadium, starting with a 6-game homestand which gets underway tomorrow evening with a 6:05 matchup with the Kokomo Jackrabbits.