{"id":17639,"date":"2026-06-15T13:16:51","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T18:16:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/wisconsin-rapids-rafters\/?p=17639"},"modified":"2026-06-15T13:16:51","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T18:16:51","slug":"rafters-winning-streak-ends-as-comeback-bid-falls-just-short-to-la-crosse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/wisconsin-rapids-rafters\/2026\/06\/15\/rafters-winning-streak-ends-as-comeback-bid-falls-just-short-to-la-crosse\/","title":{"rendered":"Rafters Winning Streak Ends as Comeback Bid Falls Just Short to La Crosse"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Luc Carter<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The 6-10 Wisconsin Rapids Rafters hit the road for the first time in a week as they traveled to<br \/>\nLa Crosse to take on the 11-7 Loggers in game 2 of a home and home weekend set. The Rafters<br \/>\nlooked to sweep the Loggers and extend their win streak to four games.<\/p>\n<p>Tristin Crusenberry took the mound for the Rafters. This was his first outing since giving up 10<br \/>\nearned runs last Saturday at Wausau. As Crusenberry has done his whole life he wouldn&#8217;t stay<br \/>\ndown for long as he bounced back in a huge way this Sunday as he started off the game by<br \/>\nstriking out 5 of the first 7 Loggers he faced in the first 2 innings of the game holding the<br \/>\nLoggers scoreless through 2.<\/p>\n<p>Then in the top of the third inning the Rafters would open up the scoring thanks to Dylan Frank\u2019s<br \/>\n19th RBI of the season on a fielder&#8217;s choice to score Esteban Olazaba.<\/p>\n<p>Crusenberry continued to cruise as he would throw up scoreless frames in both the 3rd and 4th<br \/>\ninning before finally running into a little bit of trouble in the 5th inning where he would give up<br \/>\n2 singles and then a double to Savion Flowers which scored 2 runs and gave La Crosse a 2-1<br \/>\nlead. Crusenberry would get out of the inning getting the next 2 Loggers to ground out finishing<br \/>\nhis day with a solid line of 5 innings pitched, 6 hits allowed, 2 earned runs, 6 strikeouts and 0<br \/>\nwalks.<\/p>\n<p>The Rafters offense had \u201cThe Sherriff&#8217;s&#8221; back as back-to-back doubles from Zach Gingrich and<br \/>\nCarter Bennett would tie the game up at 2-2 in the top of the 6th. Gingrich\u2019s double was his<br \/>\nsecond of the day which gave him the lone lead for doubles in the entire Northwoods League<br \/>\nwith 9 on the season.<\/p>\n<p>In the bottom of the 6th inning La Crosse flexed their offensive muscles striking for 4 runs on 4<br \/>\nhits to make it a 6-2 ballgame. The Rafters had a tough day defensively committing 5 errors on<br \/>\nthe day, 2 of which came in the big 6th inning. Connor Raradin would enter the game to replace<br \/>\nGage Honeyager and got the Rafters out of the inning recording the final 2 outs of the inning.<br \/>\nThe Rafters refused to go away as in the top of the 7th inning with 2 outs Estaban Olazaba would<br \/>\nsingle and then Jax Legrand would draw a walk in a 7 pitch at bat to bring up the Rafters leader<br \/>\nin RBI to the plate, Dylan Frank. Frank would once again come through clutch, ripping a triple<br \/>\ndown the right field line to clear the bases and make it a 6-4 game keeping the Rafters in it.<br \/>\nFrank would be stranded at 3rd after Ryan Bevington would strikeout Gingrich to end the inning.<\/p>\n<p>Raradin worked a scoreless bottom of the 7th to get the Rafters bats back up in the top of the 8th.<br \/>\nBennett and Soto both singled and pinch hitter Harrison Engskov drew a walk to load the bases.<br \/>\nWith one out Josiah Palomino came up to the plate. Palomino drew a walk on 5 pitches to bring<br \/>\nin Bennett from third to cut the deficit to 1, 6-5 Loggers with the bases loaded and only 1 out in<br \/>\nthe inning.<\/p>\n<p>The Loggers made a call to the bullpen bringing in Dalton Smith. Coming into today&amp;#39;s game<br \/>\nSmith had pitched 5 innings without giving up a hit or a run this summer. He continued this in<br \/>\nthe 8th getting the first batter he faced, Olazaba to ground into a 6-4-3 double play to end the<br \/>\ninning.<\/p>\n<p>Raradin would once again dig in and deliver a scoreless inning to give the Rafters a chance in the<br \/>\ntop of the 9th with LeGrand, Frank and Gingrich due up down by 1 run.<\/p>\n<p>LeGrand led off the inning with a gritty at bat drawing a leadoff walk. Smith would start to lose<br \/>\nhis command issuing a 5 pitch walk to Frank next. Then Gingrich would pick up the first hit off<br \/>\nof Smith this season with an infield hit to load the bases with no outs.<\/p>\n<p>Bennett was next up and he hit a ground ball to first baseman Mana Lau Kong who threw home<br \/>\nto get the force out on LeGrand at the plate for the first out. Nico DeFazio was the next up to the<br \/>\nplate and the Rafters would get hit with deja vu from the previous inning as DeFazio hit a ground<br \/>\nball at the shortstop Joey Senstock who started a 6-4-3 double play to end the game.<\/p>\n<p>The Rafters fell 6-5 to end the winning streak in a game they came as close as possible to<br \/>\ncompleting a miraculous comeback.<\/p>\n<p>The Rafters begin a 2 game home series against the Kalamazoo Grizzlies tomorrow with first<br \/>\npitch at 6:35 with Colton LaFave making his first start of the season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Luc Carter The 6-10 Wisconsin Rapids Rafters hit the road for the first time in a week as they  [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"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":[775,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-stories","category-team-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.5 (Yoast SEO v26.5) - 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