Written By: Khalin Kapoor, TV Broadcaster

Wisconsin Rapids, Wis. –  The Rafters love to score runs in bunches.

A three-run first, a two-run fourth, and a three-run sixth told the story for Wisconsin Rapids in their 10-3 win against Lakeshore on Friday night.

After getting swept in their doubleheader on Thursday against Wausau, this win was a much needed sigh of relief for the Rafters. They got out to an early lead, got stellar pitching from Matthew Heard and Nick Paulsen, and slammed the door late. 

Heard put together his best outing of the season by far, spinning five scoreless frames with seven strikeouts and no walks. He faced the minimum through four innings and retired the first nine hitters he saw. 

“That’s exactly what we needed out of him, he had a little bit of trouble in his last start with the finger, obviously that thing healed up pretty good,” said field manager Kirk Shrider after the game.

Paulsen tossed three innings in relief and allowed just two runs on three hits while striking out one. After being the piggyback to Bryson Moore in his last two appearances, he provided some much-needed stability out of the bullpen after the doubleheader Thursday. 

Perhaps most impressively, the Rafters needed no home runs to score their ten runs in the ballgame. The majority of their runs scored throughout this week’s homestand had been due to round-trippers, but WR proved that they didn’t need to do that to notch the win. 

“We had a couple come close, but at the end of the day, 14 hits and 10 runs, that’s doing your job,” said Shrider. “That’s what we need to do going forward, not always count on the big one… having clutch hitting and those timely hits always are big. 

The Rafters had tons of offensive standouts throughout the game, with Owen McElfatrick scoring four runs from the leadoff spot, Max McGwire driving in three runs, and NWL all-star Jorge DeGoti knocking three hits of his own. WR had a total of 14 hits in the game.

“I’ve developed a lot… Everyone’s able to push me to get where I’m at now,” said DeGoti after the game. “Just because yesterday we came here and it wasn’t our day, that doesn’t mean that the next day isn’t going to be our day.”

Juan Berrios entered in the ninth and allowed one unearned run, but recorded the final three outs to finish off Lakeshore. Overall, this was a solid top-to-bottom performance for Wisconsin Rapids, which was a crucial sight after the two losses on Thursday. And after those losses, Shrider knew exactly which buttons to push to get the best out of his squad the next day. 

“Sometimes the best thing is to not talk to ‘em at all, I think everybody understands what the situation was and what happened, there was no reason to berate anybody about it,” he said. “It’s baseball, sometimes things just don’t happen right… we find a nice cruising altitude and hopefully take care of business the following day, which is what we did today.”

Wisconsin Rapids finished off the series with Lakeshore on Saturday, with first pitch for game two scheduled for 6:35. Khalin Kapoor will have the call on the Northwoods League Sports Network, and Andy Jachim will be live on WFHR – 97.5 FM, 1320 AM.