The Woodchucks couldn’t cash in on the opportunities they had offensively, as they fell to the Madison Mallards Saturday night at Warner Park, 5-2.
The loss ended the Woodchucks’ seven-game winning streak and dropped them to 1.5 games back of the first-place Mallards (12-6) in the Northwoods League South division.
The Woodchucks (10-7) appeared to be in good shape early. In the first inning, left fielder Jake Jeffries drew a lead-off walk. Jeffries advanced to second on a passed ball, and scored when second baseman Nate Mondou’s single to right was mishandled by Mallards’ right fielder Brian Rodemoyer, giving the Chucks the 1-0 advantage.
In the fourth, the Chucks took advantage of a lead-off single and stolen base from right fielder Troy Traxler. With two outs, Jeffries singled Traxler home to make the score 2-0 in favor of Wisconsin.
The next play proved to be the turning point of the game. With Jeffries at second, Mondou again singled to right. However, Rodemoyer this time fielded cleanly and fired a strike to catcher Scott Heelan, nabbing Jeffries at the plate on a bang-bang play and halting the Chucks’ rally.
The Mallards carried their momentum into the bottom half of the inning, scoring three runs combined off Woodchucks’ starter Alex Phillips and reliever Robby Medel. In the eighth, Madison added two insurance runs off Medel, aiding to their 5-2 victory.
The Chucks outhit Madison 11 to six, but stranded nine runners on base in the loss.
The Woodchucks are back in action Sunday in the finale of their two-game set against the Mallards. First pitch is scheduled for 3:05 P.M.
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The Wisconsin Woodchucks are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwood’s League. Playing its 21st season of summer collegiate baseball, the Northwood’s League is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 18 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 115 Northwood’s League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (DET) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (CWS), Jordan Zimmermann (WAS), Curtis Granderson (NYM), Allen Craig (STL) and Ben Zobrist (TB). All league games are viewable live via the Northwood’s League YouTube channel. For more information, visit woodchucks.com.
