Rafters Head to Fond du Lac for First Ever Meeting with the Dock Spiders

With two wins in the opening home stand, the Rafters hit the road for the first time

Wisconsin Rapids, Wis. – Records have already been broken in 2017 for the Wisconsin Rapids Rafters after two games at home, but today the team travels to take on Fond du Lac for the first ever meeting between the two teams.  

With two wins at home against the Kenosha Kingfish, the Rafters opened the season 2-0 for the first time in team history. It took extra innings on Wednesday night to complete the comeback in the 10th inning on a Mitch Mallek two-run blast to right field.

Wisconsin Rapids takes to the road today for the first time this year. The Dock Spiders (1-1) picked up the franchises first win Wednesday in a comeback of their own with an 11-6 win against the Madison Mallards (1-1) after Madison took the first game of the series.

Plover native Cal Giese receives the ball today on the hill for the Rafters. Giese returns for his second season with the club after being a part of the historic 2016 World Series run. During the spring, Giese led the St. Cloud State pitching staff with a 1.86 ERA and a 9-2 record. With 79 punch-outs and only 19 walks, Giese goes up against Connor Johnson of the Dock Spiders. Johnson pitched for a Catawba baseball club that finished with a 40-17 record in the spring. The starter/reliever tossed 63 innings while owning an 8-2 record with a 5.37 ERA.

Mallek leads the Rafters with four runs batted in and three hits on the season, tied in the hit department with Jakob Guenther. This is the first of eight games the Rafters are set to matchup with the Dock Spiders on the season.

First pitch is set for 6:35 pm at Marion Herr-Baker Field with radio coverage starting at 6:20 pm on the Rafters Radio Network WFHR 1320 AM and WFHR.com.

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The Wisconsin Rapids Rafters 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 http://northwoodsleague.com/wisconsin-rapids-rafters/ or download the new Northwoods League Mobile App on the Apple App Store or on Google Play and set the Rafters as your favorite team.