{"id":17898,"date":"2026-05-25T23:24:59","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T04:24:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/?p=17898"},"modified":"2026-05-27T10:55:27","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T15:55:27","slug":"rivets-kick-off-2026-season-with-a-high-scoring-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/rockford-rivets\/2026\/05\/25\/rivets-kick-off-2026-season-with-a-high-scoring-victory\/","title":{"rendered":"Rivets&#8217; Kick Off 2026 Season With a High-Scoring Victory"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By: Christopher Rodriguez\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">ROCKFORD, Ill. <\/span><b>\u2014 <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A Memorial Day crowd packed Rivets Stadium on Monday as Rockford kicked off the season and began a two-game home stand against the Kenosha Kingfish.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Rockford Rivets began the 2026 season in a high-scoring matchup and secured the win, 8-6, to send the crowd home happy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cI think it was a great excitement for the players,\u201d Rivets manager Bob Koopmann said. \u201cThey\u2019ve been off for a little bit, some of them just got here, but getting out there and being able to play, and especially coming up with a win, I think they really enjoyed that.\u201d<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u200b<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">On the mound for Rockford was left-handed pitcher Baris Brua (University of Wisconsin), who pitched through four innings, allowing three hits, four runs scored, and four strikeouts.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It was an offensive battle, with 16 hits and 14 runs scored from both teams combined. Base running was on display throughout the matchup, with the Rivets earning four stolen bases while the Kingfish earned three.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cOur starting pitcher, he battled, and he got into the fourth,\u201d Koopmann said. \u201cHe\u2019ll go further next time out, but they did run a little bit on him, and he is a little bit longer to the plate, and we talked about it. There are things that we can work on where we can be a little quicker.\u201d<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u200b<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kenosha was able to capitalize at the top of the second inning with a double steal and a wild pitch to kick off the scoring, 2-0.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Rivets didn\u2019t take long to respond, after a bases clearing triple in the bottom of the second by third baseman Colin McCormick (Bradley University) to make it 3-2 Rockford.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The scoring continued for the Rivets in the bottom of the third inning, where first baseman Davis Collie (John A. Logan C.C.) earned a double that was followed by stealing both third base and home plate on a wild pitch to make it 4-2.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Despite a pitching change for the Rivets during the inning to right-handed pitcher Max Woll, pitching woes began to creep into the top of the fourth inning for the Rivets. The Kingfish earned four runs, which included a two-run homer to give them back the lead, 6-4.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u200b<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The back-and-forth offensive battle continued into the bottom of the fifth, where another wild pitch would benefit the Rivets, bringing in right fielder Bryce Nevils (John A. Logan C.C.). Left fielder Aidan Capone (Olney Central College) quickly followed with an RBI single to bring in Collie and tie it up once again, 6-6.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rockford would pick up where they left off in the bottom of the sixth, with Nevils\u2019 two-out RBI single bringing in shortstop Jackson Forbes (University of Arizona) for the third lead change of the game, putting the Rivets up, 7-6.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Forbes completed his three-hit, two-run scored game with a solo home run to right field for the Rivets&#8217; first homer of the season and to extend the lead.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cI\u2019m getting to learn more about Jackson every day,\u201d Koopmann said. \u201cHe played here last year, and he played shortstop, but he can play anywhere in the infield. Finding the spot to put him in the order, I really thought he had to be our lead-off hitter. He\u2019s got the experience, and he certainly came through tonight.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Right-handed pitcher Ben Buehring (UW-Oshkosh) took the Rivets to the finish line and struck out the final Kingfish batter, putting his team into the win column to start the summer.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Rivets and the Kingfish will be back in action at Rivets Stadium on Tuesday at 6:35 p.m. Fans can purchase tickets to Rivets games all season long at<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rockfordrivets.com\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">www.rockfordrivets.com<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By: Christopher Rodriguez\u00a0 ROCKFORD, Ill. \u2014 A Memorial Day crowd packed Rivets Stadium on Monday as Rockford kicked off the  [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":17903,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-team-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.5 (Yoast SEO v26.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Rivets&#039; 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