Wisconsin Rapids completes a dramatic comeback to top Madison

The Wisconsin Rapids Rafters (14-8) maintained their lead in the Great Lakes West Division with a dramatic late-inning 6-5 comeback win over the Madison Mallards (10-12) Friday night.

Wisconsin Rapids struck first on the second batter of the game when Jaylen Guy hit a solo home run to put Wisconsin Rapids up 1-0. Davion Downey doubled the Rafters lead with a solo shot of his own in the fifth inning.

Madison pulled within one with a sac fly in the bottom of the fifth and Frankie Garriola tripled in the seventh for the Rafters to extend their lead to 3-1. In the bottom of the inning, Madison posted four runs to take a 5-3 lead.

The Rafters chipped away at the deficit, scoring on an RBI single by Downey in the top of the eighth. Trailing 5-4 heading to the ninth, the Rafters tied the game on an RBI single by Jake Dunham and took the lead on a sacrifice fly by Edarian Williams.

Brayden Bonner closed out the ninth inning with two strikeouts to earn the save. Izzy Fuentes gets the win with three strikeouts in three innings out of the bullpen. Rafters starter Cal Djuraskovic went five innings, giving up just one run and four hits.

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. It will be game one of a two-game set with Fond du Lac.

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.

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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 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.