Madison Strikes Early in Win over Woodchucks

Madison, Wis.- The Madison Mallards are a team that thrives on timely offense. The team had scored in double digits in each of its first four wins on the campaign, and that trend continued Friday night at Warner Park. Seven runs in the first two frames were enough to power the Mallards (5-6) to a decisive 11-3 victory over the Wisconsin Woodchucks (4-7), snapping the Chucks’ brief two-game win streak.

The Mallards struck early and often on Friday. Cole Daily and Cade Bunnell both reached in the first and Turchin brought them home with a three-run homer to left. The second inning didn’t go much better for Woodchucks starter Kellen Rholl. Daily singled home a run and scored and Brock Weimer singled home two as part of a four run frame.

The Chucks had come back from down seven before, but there would be no comeback this time. Stevie Mangrum did his best to spark one, mashing his sixth home run of the year in the top of the fourth to make it 7-2.

That’s as close as it would get. Madison responded in the bottom of the inning against Josh Bottenfield as Turchin launched his second homer of the game and Jeff Mitchell, Jr. doubled and scored to kill the comeback, making it 9-2.

The Chucks got one more back in the fifth when Jackson Owens beat out an infield single, allowing Kyle Mrozinski to score to make it 9-3, but Madison responded with one run in the fifth and another in the sixth. Daniel Sprinkle pitched two scoreless innings to close things out for the Chucks, but offense couldn’t get going against the Madison bullpen, and the Mallards locked down an 11-3 win.

Mallards starter Luke Matheny was solid over six innings, allowing just one earned run (three total), giving up four hits with four strikeouts and no walks. His record improves to 2-0, while Rholl’s drops to 0-2. The Woodchucks will look for some revenge tomorrow night in the series finale. Heath Hawkins will make his second start for Wisconsin at 6:35 PM.

Tickets are on sale to all Wisconsin Woodchucks home games and the 2017 Northwoods League Home Run Derby and All-Star Game, presented by Ascension. Tickets can be purchased online, by calling 715.845.5055 or by stopping by the Woodchucks front office during normal business hours.

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The Wisconsin Woodchucks are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. The 23-year-old summer collegiate league is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 20 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 170 former Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including two-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (WAS), two-time World Series Champion Ben Zobrist (CHC) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (BOS), Jordan Zimmermann (DET), Curtis Granderson (NYM) and Lucas Duda (NYM). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League portal. For more information, visit www.woodchucks.com or download the new Northwoods League Mobile App on the Apple App Store or on Google Play and set the Woodchucks as your favorite team.