By: Emily Tuttle<\/b><\/p>\n
BATTLE CREEK, Mich. \u2014 The Rockford Rivets’ (8-12) drought continued when they committed five errors and only four hits, as the Battle Creek Battle Jacks (9-11) pitching staff put up zeros on the Rivets through six innings. The Rivets lost the game 7-2 and dropped the series, extending their losing streak to five.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Through six, the Rivets had not sent more than four men to the plate in any inning. They had five 1-2-3 innings all night, and their offense struggled with only four hits. The Battle Jacks\u2019 starting pitcher went four innings and only allowed two hits, making it difficult for the Rivets, who did not even earn a walk until the seventh inning.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The game was scoreless through three, but the Battle Jacks made good on an error by River Lindsay (Bradley University). What could have been a routine fly out to end the inning turned to trouble on a missed catch, allowing three runners to score. Another single by the Jacks put them up four.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Rivets\u2019 errors\u2014five total on the day\u2014continued to be costly in the sixth, when an off-the-wall triple turned into four bases after Lindsay couldn\u2019t reel the ball in at third. Eight hitters came to the dish for the Battle Jacks in the bottom of the sixth, finishing the inning up seven.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Pitcher Anthony Sorrentino (Roosevelt University) threw 98 pitches in his start, going 5.1 innings with seven runs, but only two of them were earned.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n George Gouriotis (Edgewood College) took over in the sixth and recorded two strikeouts across two innings. Both Gouriotis and Ammon Shaul (GateWay CC) pitched in relief in both games against the Battle Jacks.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Rivets finally removed their goose egg from the board in the seventh, when Tommy Townsend (Xavier University) belted a stand-up triple to right field. Jack Scheri (Stony Brook University) drove him home on a sac fly. The Jacks’ second pitcher of the night then allowed four consecutive walks, the final one scoring a run.<\/span><\/p>\n The Rivs struck out seven times against the division opponent, and their once-hot four-game momentum has swung to the other side of the pendulum as the Battle Creek loss marks the fifth in a row. The Rivets have another two-game series in this six-game road set, hoping to climb their way out of the current last-place spot in the Great Lakes East.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Though the Rivets sit at the bottom of the pile at 8-12, they are only four games behind the team in the No. 1 slot. They will face off against the Royal Oak Leprechauns in Michigan on Monday at 5:35 pm CT. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By: Emily Tuttle BATTLE CREEK, Mich. \u2014 The Rockford Rivets’ (8-12) drought continued when they committed five errors and only […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"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-18008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-team-news"],"yoast_head":"\n