CWS Sports Desk
August 9, 2012
Battle Creek–Following a tough come-from-behind loss a night ago, the resilient Wisconsin Rapids Rafters (10-22, 26-40 overall) shutout the Battle Creek Bombers (10-21, 24-42 overall) Wednesday night at C.O. Brown Stadium. A five-run fourth inning helped the Rafters pull away, but the pitching staff didn’t even need the help, stranding Bombers baserunners all night.
In his final start for the Rafters, Kyle Wormington (JR, Valparaiso Univ.) put forth his strongest, and first scoreless effort. Battle Creek tallied a hit off of the right-hander in five of six innings and had a baserunner in every inning. He stranded eight runners and got a double play to end a two-on one-out threat in the sixth. At just 86 pitches, 54 for strikes, the Oklahoma native was efficient and sharp. He tossed 16 of 24 first pitches for strikes and had only two three-ball counts on the evening. In total, the six scoreless were accompanied by six hits, one walk, and three strike outs—all of them swinging.
The offense got behind him early. The first three Rafters reached off of starter Brian Valente in the second, beginning with a double from Josh Cyr (JR, Univ. of North Alabama), his team-leading 12th of the season. Two scored in the inning on RBIs from Kenny Towns (FR, Univ. of Virginia) and Aaron Jones (JR, Winston Salem State). Wisconsin Rapids would unload on the right-hander from Eastern Michigan in the fourth. The first batters in the inning all got aboard and all scored. The big hit in the inning came from Jordan Dreiling (JR, Univ. of Kansas), who knocked in two to make it 5-0.
Tommy Organ (JR, Univ. of North Florida) and Cam Seidl (JR, UW-Stevens Point) finished off the road masterpiece with three innings of one-hit baseball. The duo struck out eight of twelve batters faced for their nine outs. The last eight outs were all on strikes, and they struck out the final six batters of the game. Seidl threw his first seven pitches for strikes and 12 of his 14 in the zone. The staff on a whole fired 68% of their 136 pitches in the zone
The shutout was the first since a 2-0 win over Madison on June 5th. It was the first road shutout for Wisconsin Rapids this season. For the fifth straight day, the Rafters alternated wins and losses and with the win take the season-series lead with Battle Creek at five wins to four losses. A win Thursday, and the Rafters will the second season-series of the year, a feat that has not been accomplished by the franchise in its young history.
Wormington (3-4) claimed the victory and Valente remained winless, taking the loss (0-5).
