MADISON, Wis. – The Mallards jumped out to a 3-0 lead on the Rafters in the home half of the first and took strong command of Wednesday night\u2019s ballgame from there.<\/p>\n
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Davis Hamilton collected an RBI for the host in just the second hitter sent up by Madison in the first. Blake Guerin made it 2-0 with an RBI single, and catcher Will Vierling did the same thing two batters later to make it 3-0 Mallards.<\/p>\n
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Madison tacked on another run in the bottom of the second on an Alex Harrell sacrifice fly.<\/p>\n
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The first homer of the season for Mallard outfielder Justin Best in the top of the sixth padded the Madison lead to 6-0.<\/p>\n
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Wisconsin Rapids got back into the contest in a big way in the seventh. Madison reliever Brandon Cahill walked four straight Rafter hitters after Jake Beauchaine singled to lead off the frame. The walks gave Rapids two runs back, with a Jack Mathey sacrifice fly making it 6-3. Alex Brodie was in the box with two down and the bags juiced in the inning. He drove a ball to the right field warning track that was too tough for Charlie Marion to handle. Brodie\u2019s bases-clearing double capped off a six-run inning and tied the game up.<\/p>\n
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Madison would get the last laugh in the eighth inning with three final runs to sink Wisconsin Rapids. A run came home on an Alex Harrell fielder\u2019s choice to break the 6-6 tie, and a Blake Guerin two-run double to center field made it 9-6 Mallards.<\/p>\n
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The Rafters threatened in the ninth, but left two runners on and could not push anything across.<\/p>\n
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Thomas Burns got the start for the Rafters and served as an opener in his debut with the club. The right-hander from Hortonville, WI, and Arizona State surrendered three runs on four hits in the first inning.<\/p>\n
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Nick Paulsen worked a bulk of the game for the Rafters out of the bullpen. The lefty went four strong and allowed only one run on three hits. The second-year Rafter struck out six and didn\u2019t walk a hitter in his second outing of the season.<\/p>\n
Paulsen\u2019s college teammate Sidney Ferry collected the loss for the Rafters tonight. After getting the victory on Sunday against Lakeshore, Ferry struggled with command in the eight inning tonight, allowing three runs in that inning.<\/p>\n
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Jacobs Kisting got the ball for Madison and went five scoreless innings on the hill for the second straight start this summer. The Bradley product allowed just two hits and struck out eight in the 88 pitches he threw.<\/p>\n
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Davis Welch got the win out of the Madison bullpen with his two innings of work. The right-hander didn\u2019t allow a hit or run in his third appearance of the season.<\/p>\n
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The Rafters are back in action tomorrow in game two of the series against Madison. First pitch is slated for 6:05, the game can be heard on the radio home of Rafters Baseball, WFHR – 97.5 FM, 1320 AM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MADISON, Wis. – The Mallards jumped out to a 3-0 lead on the Rafters in the home half of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":16655,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[718,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-permanentslider","category-team-news"],"yoast_head":"\n