After the Rivets touched up Fond du Lac for six runs in the 1st inning on Sunday night, it appeared Rockford may cruise to a victory. That was far from the case, but the Rivets used clutch pitching down the stretch to down the Dock Spiders 6-5 in Fond du Lac.<\/p>\n
The victory brings Rockford\u2019s record to 15-20 and snaps a seven game road losing streak.<\/p>\n
Dock Spiders starter Jared Bellissimo (R-Fr, Rutgers) started the ball game by opening a 0-2 count on Rivets leadoff man Josue Urdeneta (R-Fr, Indiana State), but the lefty would throw four straight balls to lose him and put the leadoff man aboard.<\/p>\n
It was a sign of things to come, as Phil Matulia (Jr, Louisiana Tech) followed with a base knock. After Tommy Benson (R-Fr, Triton College) struck out, Daniel Cantu (R-Fr, South Florida) walked to load the bases.<\/p>\n
Wade Elliott (So, Louisiana Tech) came through with a line drive down the left field line to bring in 2 runs and open the scoring. Tyeler Hawkins (R-Fr, Louisville) followed with a 2-RBI single of his own to double the score, 4-0.<\/p>\n
Bellissimo recorded the second out, but then walked Brody Harding (So, Illinois) to bring Grant Magill (R-Fr, Indiana State) to the plate. Magill sent a hopper to shortstop, which looked like it could end the inning, but Jackson Loftin (So, Oral Roberts) booted the ball to load the bases.<\/p>\n
Urdeneta then stepped to the plate and drove in a 2-RBI single to extend the lead to 6-0.<\/p>\n
That would be the final run scoring play of the game for Rockford. As it turned out, it would be just enough.<\/p>\n
Rivets starter Ben Vitas (Fr, Central Michigan) turned in a solid start, going 6.2 innings, allowing 3 earned runs.<\/p>\n
In the 7th, Vitas was pulled after allowing a 2-run homer to Trey Lafleur (R-So, Ole Miss) which cut the lead in half, but Tyler Horvath (R-So, Illinois-Springfield) got the final out of the frame.<\/p>\n
In the bottom of the 8th, the plot would thicken. Cade Turner (Fr, Illinois-Springfield) started the inning by allowing two hits and a fielder’s choice – a broken bat tapper back to the mound that allowed a run to score from third to cut the lead to 6-4. Then, JT Scara brought Elijah Sanchez (Jr, Northern Illinois). Sanchez walked his only batter, and Scara brought in closer Tucker Shalley (Fr, Illinois) with the bases loaded for the five out save.<\/p>\n
Shalley clutched up, striking out the first batter he faced and then induced an inning-ending fly out.<\/p>\n
After Rockford stranded two insurance runs on base in the top of the 9th, Shalley allowed a leadoff single to Chandler Simpson (R-Fr, UAB) who made it all the way to third on an error by Matulia in right field. Shalley then walked Victor Scott (R-Fr, West Virginia) to put the tying run on first.<\/p>\n
In the next at-bat, Scott took off for second but was hosed by Magill to record the first out of the inning. Shalley then retired the next two batters in order – one of which via a fly out, which allowed Simpson to score from 3rd – to slam the door.<\/p>\n
Ben Vitas pitched up the victory, improving his record to 2-1, while Shalley nailed down his 3rd save of the summer.<\/p>\n
Rockford and Fond du Lac will wrap up the first half of the season tomorrow at 6:35 at Herr-Baker field.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After the Rivets touched up Fond du Lac for six runs in the 1st inning on Sunday night, it appeared […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":5015,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-team-news","category-update-ticker"],"yoast_head":"\n