By: Emily Tuttle
ROCKFORD, Ill. — Ominous clouds loomed over Rivets Stadium as fathers and friends alike sat in the stands hoping to beat out the rain on this Father’s Day Sock Monkey Sunday. Unfortunately, both Mother Nature and the Richmond Honkers (15-11) took the win in a short five-inning matchup, the Rockford Rivets (10-18) dropping the game 6-2.
It was Baris Brua (UW-OshKosh) on the bump for the Rivets, who threw eight strikes in his four innings, four of them looking and four of them swinging. He still allowed six earned runs and eight hits.
The Honkers got going early in the first, with a single and a double that brought a run home. A two-run homer in the second continued their upward trend, and an RBI double in the third scored another runner.
Brua’s strikeouts were scattered over multiple innings before Rivets returner Gus Allred (University of Northern Colorado) took over on the mound for his first game back this season. He only pitched one inning, with one strikeout, before the game was called due to rain.
The Rivets offense did rack up five hits in the five-inning game, with Connor Kave (Harper CC) leading off the game with a single. But they had three 1-2-3 innings out of the five, not gaining enough traction on the base paths. In the bottom of the third, Beau Bloxdorf (Madison CC) and Kave singled back to back, but were both stranded.
The fifth finally brought a couple of runs for the Rivs. Keith Eusebio (Paradise Valley CC) doubled, a needed hit after a recent drought. He advanced to third on a wild pitch, Bryk Barnard (GateWay CC) walked and Alex Tabbert’s (Harper CC) RBI single brought Eusebio across the plate.
Barnard strolled home on a wild pitch that soared high over the catcher’s head to smack the backstop. The weather conditions were detrimental to all players today, runners sliding on the wet dirt and balls slipping out of pitchers’ hands. The game was finally called after five, even though it had been raining all night.
The Rivets interns sprinted onto the field to pull out the tarp quickly, keeping the grass green and the dirt pristine for their next home game.
The Rivets will look to gain some momentum against the Lakeshore Chinooks on Monday at 6:35 pm.