By Ashley Birkeness
Rockford, IL – With two outs in the bottom of the fourth, the Rockford Rivets (3-3) were down 5-4. That was until Noah Jouras sent a ball flying into the right field corner for a two-run triple to give the Rivets a one run lead against the Battle Creek Battle Jacks (1-5) on Saturday.
After Jouras built momentum for the Rivets, the defense continued on the dirt as it sat the Battle Jacks down 1-2-3 in both the fifth and sixth innings.
In the seventh inning the Battle Jacks scored their only run that they would get for the rest of the game while the Rivets went on to score one in the seventh and two in the eight to lift them to a 9-6 win over the Battle Jacks.
Jacob Davis came in for relief in the top of third, pitching 4.1 innings giving up one run on four hits. Davis (0-0, 3.86 ERA) had one strikeout and three walks. Jack Wajda (1-0, 0.00 ERA) also came in for relief, earning the win while going 1.2 innings allowing no runs on one hit and two strikeouts and no walks.
The first two innings for the Battle Jacks were nothing like the end of the game as they scored two runs in the first as the first two batters reached via error and a single to left field. In the next at bat the first run was brought in when Brock Daniels singled to left field. 1o pitches later, the Battle Jacks took a 2-0 lead on another single.
In the bottom of the first the Rivets loaded the bases on an A.j Henkle single to left field and back-to-back walks. The third walk in a row led to Henkle earning a free walk home to put the Rivets within one.
Battle Creek opened up its lead in the top of the second as it started off the inning with the first three batters all reaching base. Cam Farrar brought in two runs on a single to left field and Daniels brought in the third run of the inning on a base hit to right field to take a 5-1 lead.
The Rivets answered right back in the bottom half of the second inning scoring three runs to make it a one run ball game on a sacrifice groundout and a two-run single from Carson Roberts.
In the bottom of the eighth, the Rivets extended their lead as Nick Demarco hit an RBI single and Jouras put Rockford up 9-6 as he scored on a wild pitch.
The Rivets will head to Kalamazoo, Michigan as they will face the Growlers in a two-game series starting Sunday at 1:35 p.m. ET.
