Rafters Score 13 Unanswered to Defeat Fond du Lac
After falling behind early, Rafter bats warm up with 17 hits
 
Wisconsin Rapids, Wis. – The Rafters fell behind early to the Dock Spiders, but timely hitting paced a 13-5 victory from Witter Field on Friday night. Fond du Lac led 5-0 after two innings, but the Rafters tacked on multiple runs in four separate innings to score 13 unanswered and put away Fond du Lac. The Rafters improve to 3-1 on the season, while Fond du Lac falls to 2-2.
 
The Dock Spiders pressured Rafters pitching early, loading the bases with no outs in the top half of the first inning.  Fond du Lac pushed across the first run of the game on a T.J. Fetters wild pitch, which scored Orynn Veillon from third. The Dock Spiders would add one more run on a Luke Mangieri sacrifice fly to center, scoring Collin Braithwaite.  The Dock Spiders would load the bases again with 2 outs, but Fetters struck out Chris Lund to end the threat.
 
The visitors would pad their lead scoring three runs in the second, capped by an Eric Gilgenbach two-run no-doubter over the left-field wall.  The homer was Gilgenbach’s second in as many days, with a home run last night against the Rafters. The visitors led after two frames, 5-0.
 
The Rafters bats would come alive in the third, scoring their first run on a Jake Guenther blooper over the shortstop to score Josh Rehwaldt from second. Mitch Mallek would tally his fifth run batted in on the season on a cue shot that settled on the third base line, scoring Christian Jones from third. The next hitter, Brock Hallum, recorded his first hit on the season with an RBI single to center, closing the lead to 5-3 and scoring Jake Guenther. The rally would continue with two outs in the frame and the Rafters scored their fourth run of the inning on a Nick Owens gapper.  The Rafters brought nine batters to the plate and cut the lead to 5-4 after three full innings.
 
The bat of Nick Owens would tie the game in the fifth on a single back up the middle to score Mallek from second. The next batter, Bryson Stott, would give the Rafters their first lead of the game on an opposite field drive to left, scoring Owens and Hallum. After trailing 5-0, the home side secured the lead, 7-5.
 
The Rafters tagged on three more runs in the sixth, to extend the lead to 10-5. Matt Schmidt picked up an RBI on a sacrifice fly, scoring Jones from third. The Rafters tacked on their ninth run after a successful double steal and overthrow by Dock Spiders catcher Collin Braithwaite attempting to catch Nick Anderson on the back-end of the steal. Owens continued his hot streak with an RBI sac fly, scoring Anderson from third.
 
Christian Jones added an insurance run in the seventh on a solo shot to left, opening the lead the five runs. Jones leads the team with two home runs. The home side added two more in the eighth to take a 13-5 lead into the ninth.
 
Koby Bishop entered to close the door on the Dock Spiders, and retired the side. Jesse Slinger earned the win for the Rafters, throwing five innings in relief, striking out four. Matt Richey was tagged with the loss, allowing three earned runs. Nick Owens paced the comeback for the Rafters, driving in four runs to lead Wisconsin Rapids.
 
The Rafters will travel to Lakeshore for a two game series with the Chinooks. Saturday’s game at Kapco Park on the campus of Concordia University – Wisconsin in Mequon will be the home opener for Lakeshore, first pitch set for 6:35 p.m. Full coverage of the game starts at 6:20 pm on WFHR and WFHR.com, the Rafters Radio Network.

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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.