KENOSHA, WISCONSIN. – The Rockford Rivets used fantastic pitching and a timely pair of seventh inning Kenosha Kingfish errors, and Rivets shortstop Alex Maloney hit the first home run in franchise history in the eighth to beat the defending Northwoods League champions for the second consecutive night, this time 2-0, for the clubs first ever road win, while recording the first ever consecutive wins as well, on Thursday night at Simmons Field.
Rockford RHP Cole Bellair (1-1) collected the win with six shutout innings, while Rigo Beltran (1-2) suffered the loss in relief, allowing both Rivets runs, but only one earned. Anthony Dahl picked up his first save of the year with three innings of perfect relief.
The game featured a fantastic pitchers’ duel between starters Bellair and Kenosha RHP Andrew Reisinger, who also threw six shutout innings on three hits. In the seventh, Ricardo Ramirez and Cory Wright both reached on errors to begin the inning. Neal Tyrell dropped a safety squeeze bunt to first to score Ramirez and make it 1-0. In the eighth, Alex Maloney hit a solo home run to left center with two out in the inning to extend the lead to 2-0. The Kingfish would not get a baserunner aboard against Dahl, who retired all nine in relief.
The Rivets will continue the four game series with the Kenosha Kingfish Friday night at 6:35 for mystery envelope night at Rivets Stadium. Broadcasts and live streams can be found at NorthwoodsLeague.com.
Rockford is a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League, which will play its 23rd season of summer collegiate baseball in 2016. The Northwoods League is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 18 teams, drawing significantly more fans, in a friendly ballpark experience, than any league of its kind. A valuable training ground for coaches, umpires and front office staff, more than 140 Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (Washington Nationals) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (Chicago White Sox), Jordan Zimmermann (Detroit Tigers), Curtis Granderson (New York Mets), Lucas Duda (Mets) and Ben Zobrist (Chicago Cubs). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League Website, NorthwoodsLeague.com. For more information, visit RockfordRivets.com.
