By Larry Larson

Rockford’s losing streak against the Traverse City Pit Spitters grew to 11 games, as the Rivets’ dropped the first game of their road trip 9-4 at Turtle Creek Stadium on Saturday night. The loss drops the team’s record to 7-10 in the second half and 22-30 overall.  

Coming off his best start of the season, Ryan Culley (So, Central Michigan) struggled out of the gate, allowing 2 runs in the bottom of the 1st inning. 

The Rivets offense responded in a big way in the top of the 2nd inning, scoring three times to take the lead. The first blow came off the bat of Connor Goodman (R-So, UW-Milwaukee) who dropped an RBI single into center field to drive in two runs. 

Goodman moved to second base on an error, and was driven in by Josue Urdeneta (R-Fr, Indiana State) to pull the Rivets ahead 3-2. 

Unfortunately for Rockford, Traverse City kept on scoring. The Spitters tied the game at 3 using an RBI ground out in the 2nd, and regained the lead in the 3rd, pushing across runs on a Trey Yunger (Fr, Wofford) RBI single and a wild pitch. 

Culley’s struggles came to a head in the 4th inning, as he walked the bases loaded with one out. At that point, Elijah Sanchez (Jr, Northern Illinois) entered in relief, but three runs scored on a single and sac fly, helping TC break open a 8-3 lead.

Sanchez helped keep the game quiet from that point on, tossing 3.2 scoreless innings, but Rockford’s bats were unable to wake up. 

Traverse City scored once more in the 8th, and the Rivets received another RBI knock from Urdeneta in the 9th, but the rally fell well short. 

The loss and tonight’s Kokomo win, the Rivets now stand 5 games out of playoff contention. 

Rockford will get another shot to pick up its first win against Traverse City since July 17th, 2019 tomorrow at 5:05 ET.