The Madison Mallards headed into Sunday’s game at Warner Park against the Wisconsin Woodchucks on a nine-game win streak. More importantly, they were 2-0 to start the second half of the season. Both wins came over the Wisconsin Woodchucks. Friday night, pitcher J.R.
Graham showed off his versatility by hitting a game-winning RBI single. He also picked up his first win of the year on the mound. On Saturday, the Mallards routed the Woodchucks 16-3. A series sweep looked imminent, but Madison fell 7-3.
The Mallards started off the game strong with a leadoff triple from Kyle Gaedele in the bottom of the first. He eventually scored to put Madison up 1-0.
The success continued for the Mallards as J.R. Graham kept his hot bat going with a leadoff double in the second inning. He was driven in by first baseman Jacob Esch, giving the Mallards a 2-1 lead heading into the third inning.
From here, things started to unravel for Madison, giving up two runs off an error and a wild pitch. A contributing factor to the Mallards struggles was the fact that they went into the game with a slew of injuries to key infielders.
“We had some guys playing out of position,” assistant coach Matt Rademacher said. “We have some injuries, but we can’t make excuses. The guys filling in are college baseball players, who all know how to play the game.”
Things got even worse for the Mallards in the fifth, when Wisconsin scored three runs to go up 6-2.
Mallards pitcher Tyler Jones (2-3) had a rough fifth inning, giving up three hits, two of which were RBI singles.
“I didn’t make the pitches I needed to make,” Jones said. “I left some fastballs done the middle of the plate and they took advantage. That’s what good teams do.”
Home fans were given a sense of hope as the Mallards put up a fight in the bottom of the fifth. Ryan Gorton hit a RBI groundout to put the score at 6-3. In the bottom of the Eighth, the Mallards had an opportunity to cut into the lead. Instead, they left two runners stranded at first and second.
The Mallards were unable to put together a miracle comeback in the bottom of the ninth, eventually losing to the Woodchucks with a final score of 7-3.
With the Mallards playoff hopes resting on whether or not they win the second-half of the Northwood League, Rademacher still likes their chances.
“I’m still really excited, because we were rolling heading into the second-half,” Rademacher said. “I think it’s going to be scary good. If we heal our bumps and bruises and get everybody healthy, we are going to make a push for it.” Jones has an even more optimistic outlook.
“We were rolling for a while, but all good things come to end at some point,” Jones said.”We are going to win 20-in-a-row from this point forward, hopefully.”
It may be a little unrealistic to expect a 20-game win streak. However it’s not hard to foresee the Mallards quickly bouncing back from this loss, especially given their upcoming schedule. They set off on a two-game road trip against the Wisconsin Rapids Rafters, who they just swept last week.
