Rafters infielder Brock Carpenter started the game at third base for the South All-Star team

Wisconsin Rapids, Wis. – The South Division defeated the North Division in the 2015 Marshfield Clinic Northwoods League All-Star Game on Tuesday evening, 3-1. Three of the game’s four runs were scored in the first inning, but it was all pitching for the next eight innings. The North pitching held the South hitless from the second through seventh inning, while the South pitching scattered five hits over the game’s final eight innings.

Lakeshore Chinook Lake Bachar (UW-Whitewater) earned the win for the North by pitching a clean fifth inning, while Willmar Stinger Brady Anderson (Florida Gulf Coast) took the loss for the South. Kenosha Kingfish PJ Schuster (SIU-Edwardsville) picked up the one-out save. Fellow Kingfish teammate Eric Filia (UCLA) earned “Star of Stars” honors by going 1-for-3, scoring a pair of runs and picking up two stolen bases.

The game started with a bang as Waterloo Buck Luke Stratman (Lamar CC) hit a solo home run for the North as the second batter of the game. The South responded early as La Crosse Logger Mason McCoy (Iowa) doubled and scored in the first. Filia scored the go-ahead run in the first on a North.

Over the next six innings, pitching ruled as a plethora of pitchers from both sides kept the hitters off balance. South pitchers picked up nine strike outs in the game, while the North was one better with 10.

The North All-Stars had a chance to break the game open in the top of the seventh when they loaded the bases with no outs. The South, however, would get out of the jam as Madison Mallards pitcher Vince Arobio (Pacific) struck out back-to-back North hitters, followed by a strike out to end the inning from Green Bay Bullfrog pitcher Jeremy Graf (St. Petersburg College).

The South added an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth, as Filia singled, stole second, then scored on a Lucas Raley ground out to give the South a two-run cushion.

All teams in the league will have an off day on Wednesday, July 22, for a travel day before returning to action on July 23.

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The Wisconsin Rapids Rafters are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. Playing its 22nd season of summer collegiate baseball in 2015, 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 120 Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (WAS) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (CWS), Jordan Zimmermann (WAS), Curtis Granderson (NYM), Lucas Duda (NYM) and Ben Zobrist (OAK). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League Website.  For more information, visit www.raftersbaseball.com.