CWS Sports Desk
July 21, 2012
La Crosse–The Wisconsin Rapids Rafters (6-10, 22-28 overall) fell in the first game of the final series against the La Crosse Loggers (7-8, 33-17 overall) on Friday night at Copeland Park. In front of 3,493, the Rafters jumped out to the first lead but allowed the final nine runs of the game to lose 9-1.
Tommy Organ (JR Univ. of North Florida) fired mix results in his four innings in a spot start for Kyle Wormington (JR, Valparaiso Univ.). He struck out the side after hitting a batter in the second but surrounded it with two big innings. La Crosse tagged him for two homers in the first to score the first five and strung together three hits and a walk in a three-run third.
Although an error caused all the first inning runs to be unearned, Organ had difficulty getting the third out all evening long. The Loggers scored in three different innings, and in each one, the runs were scored with two outs. In total, Organ allowed nine runs, four earned, in four innings and took the loss (1-4).
Austin Neary (FR, Western Carolina Univ.) knocked in the only Rafters’ run of the night in the first when he doubled home Jordan Dreiling (JR, Univ. of Kansas) in the first. Part of a three-hit inning, Neary’s team-leading 29th RBI put two in scoring position. The Rafters, though, would strand both. The missed opportunity would loom large.
The 17-pitch inning was one of only two 15-or-more pitch innings Alex Gunn worked all night, and it was the only inning in which the Rafters tallied more than one hit against the Loggers’ left-hander. He went the next eight innings without allowing a run, gave up only four hits, fanned six Rafters to get his seven total strikeouts, and pitched his complete game in under 100 pitches—99 in total, 70 of which went for strikes. Bouncing back from one of his worst outings of the season, an outing in which he allowed seven runs in a loss to Lakeshore, Gunn picked up his fourth victory (4-2).
Tommy Danczyk (SO, Univ. of St. Thomas) put forth a yeoman’s effort Friday. The right-hander hurled four scoreless, two-hit innings following Organ’s four, firing 59 pitches on the way to his longest out of the summer. The Tommie featured his two-seam fastball and splitter with great movement that baffled the Loggers’ bats on-line to the reliever’s three strikeouts.
The Rafters return to the Lumberyard again Saturday, a 6:05 pm start, for the penultimate meeting between the two teams. Bo Henning (0-2, 8.00 ERA w/ Rafters) opposes his former teammates for the second time this season and will be countered by southpaw Jesse Holiday (1-2, 4.29 ERA), who the Rafters hit hard the only time against him in a 12-3 win way back on May 31st.
