Rafters Come Up Short in Thriller with Mallards

Jaylen Guy opened the scoring with an RBI single in the second inning to put the Rafters up 1-0. Madison, playing as the Wisconsin Cheese Curds, took the lead in the third when two runs scored on an error.

Jake Dunham tied the game in the fifth with a solo home run to left field that made the score 2-2. Drew Benefield put Madison back on top with an RBI double and the Mallards led 3-2 heading to the seventh. Osvaldo Tovalin led off the seventh inning with a home run to the right-field corner and Edarian Williams doubled to put Wisconsin Rapids in front 4-3.

Madison’s Logan Michaels hit an RBI single in the bottom of the inning to tie the game and the 4-4 tie pushed the Rafters into their first extra-inning game of the season. Timo Schau hit a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the tenth to win it for Madison.

Wisconsin Rapids starter Jack Sinclair struck out five batters over six innings and Jimmy Borzone gets the loss in relief. Madison’s Theo Denlinger is credited with the win.

The Mallards and Rafters close out the series Friday in Madison. When the Rafters return to Historic Witter Field Saturday, they will face the Fond du Lac Dock Spiders and host a postgame fireworks show presented by McCain Foods.

Want to attend a Rafters game this season? Single-game tickets are on sale now. For more information on all Rafters ticket offerings visit Raftersbaseball.com, call the Rafthouse at 715-424-5400, or come visit us over at historic Witter Field. The Rafters ticket office is open from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, Monday through Friday at Witter Field, 521 Lincoln Street in Wisconsin Rapids.

###

The Wisconsin Rapids Rafters are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. The Northwoods League is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 22 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, over 200 former Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (WAS), two-time World Series Champions Ben Zobrist (CHC) and Brandon Crawford (SFG) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (BOS), Jordan Zimmermann (DET) and Curtis Granderson (TOR). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League portal. For more information, visit www.raftersbaseball.com 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.