Sports stats



Northwoods Rockford Rivets

Bullpen, Clutch Hitting Clinches Win over Woodchucks

July 11, 2021 - Northwoods League (Northwoods)
Rockford Rivets News Release


Despite another rough start, the Rivets recovered to complete a five-run comeback victory, 6-5 over the Wisconsin Woodchucks on Saturday night at Rivets Stadium. The win is Rockford's 3rd straight and improves its 2nd half record to 3-2.

Ben Vitas (Fr, Central Michigan) stumbled out of the gate, allowing two runs in the 1st inning, followed by three in the 2nd on seven Woodchucks hits.

Thanks to a Phil Matulia (Jr, Louisiana Tech) triple and Daniel Cantu (R-Fr, South Florida) sacrifice fly in the 1st, the Rivets trailed 5-1 after two frames.

As Woodchucks starter Bobby Vath (R-Fr, Arizona Western) cruised along, the score held until the bottom of the 6th. Rockford chased Vath by starting the frame with a single from Cantu and double from Tommy Benson (R-Fr, Triton College).

Brain Fuentes (R-Fr, Indiana State) drove in Cantu with an RBI single, and Benson followed on a sharp ground ball that resulted in an error off the bat of Jared Cushing (R-Fr, Xavier). Later in the frame, Fuentes came around to score on a groundout from Drew Stengren (Fr, Central Michigan) to make the score 5-4.

On the other side of the scorecard, Jake Armstrong (R-So, UW-Milwaukee) took over for Vitas in dominant fashion. After taking over in the 4th inning, the righty tossed up five straight zeros to allow a Rivets comeback.

In the bottom of the 7th, Matulia reached on an error and scored on an RBI double by Benson to knot the game at 5.

After Armstrong pitched a scoreless top of the 8th inning and Rockford didn't score in the bottom half, Cade Turner (Fr, Illinois-Springfield) came on for the 9th.

Turner hit the first batter he faced, but retired the next two, before closer Tucker Shalley (Fr, Parkland College) retired fellow all-star Kevin Kilpatrick (R-Fr, Central Florida CC) with a runner on 2nd to keep the game tied.

In the bottom of the 9th, Greg Ziegler (So, Missouri State) singled to put the winning run on base. Josue Urdeneta (R-Fr, Indiana State) struck out before Matulia reached on an error and Cantu was intentionally walked to load the bases.

Benson then drilled a ground ball to third base, but Antonio Valdez (So, Baylor) made the play at the plate to bring up Fuentes with two outs and the bases loaded. Fuentes drew a full count, but took ball four on a fastball high and outside to hand the Rivets their 4th walk-off win of the season.

Rockford and Wisconsin will wrap up their 4-game season series tomorrow afternoon at 3:05 pm.



Northwoods League Stories from July 11, 2021


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central