Published On: July 23rd, 2021

By Larry Larson

A familiar story plagued the Rivets once again in a 10-3 loss to Kenosha on Thursday night at Rivets Stadium. For the 34th game this season, Rockford allowed runs in the first two innings, falling in an 8-0 hole in the 2nd inning, which proved to be too much to overcome. 

The loss drops the Rivets’ record to 6-9 in the 2nd half of the season, 4 games out of playoff contention. 

Noah DeLuga (Fr, Minnesota) got the start for the Rivets and allowed 5 runs on four hits and two walks, surpassing the league’s single-inning pitch limit in the process. 

Jared Herzog (Fr, Rockford University) entered in the 2nd and surrendered 3 more tallies on two hits and two walks. 

Herzog would bounce back by recording back-to-back scoreless innings in the 3rd and 4th, keeping the door open for a comeback attempt. 

That attempt commenced in the 4th inning, as Brian Fuentes (R-Fr, Indiana State) belted a towering solo home run to one of the deepest parts of the ballpark in left-center field. Tommy Benson (R-Fr, Triton College) followed with a double and was eventually brought home on an RBI fielders’ choice off the bat of Connor Goodman (R-So, UW-Milwaukee) in his Rockford debut. 

The Rivets trimmed the deficit to 8-3 in the 5th, as Daniel Cantu (R-Fr, South Florida) led off the inning with a triple and was scored on a sacrifice fly by Phil Matulia (Jr, Louisiana Tech).

Herzog’s long bullpen outing ended following a scoreless 7th inning – finishing with a line of 6 innings, 5 hits, 3 earned runs and 4 strikeouts. 

Kenosha would down the Rivets’ comeback hopes with two runs in the 8th inning off of AJ Golembiewski (R-Fr, Illinois-Springfield) to open up a 10-3 lead. 

Rockford will finish a two game set with Kenosha tomorrow night at 6:05 at Rivets Stadium before beginning a critical four-game road trip to Traverse City and Kokomo. 

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