Sports News
Dock Spiders Fall in Wausau
FOND DU LAC, WI – The Wausau Woodchucks scored in four of their final five innings at the plate to defeat the Fond du Lac Dock Spiders, 12-5, and sweep the two-game series at Athletic Park in Wausau on Sunday.
With the sweep, the Woodchucks are now a half game behind the Dock Spiders for second place overall in the Great Lakes West Division, which will decide the final playoff spot if the Wisconsin Rapids Rafters win the second-half title. The Dock Spiders fell 34-31 with the loss while the Woodchucks improved to 33-31.
The Dock Spiders got out to an early 3-0 in the first off Woodchucks starter Logan Snow (Menlo). Nolan Tichy (UMass) brought home two with a double off the wall in left and Daylen Reyes (UCLA) brought home the final run of the inning with a sacrifice fly.
Dock Spiders starter Bradley Vondruska (Flagler) then got to work in his first appearance of the summer. The righty retired nine of the first 12 batters he faced over three scoreless innings. In the fourth, the Woodchucks would strike back with a two-run homer from Garrett Hill (North Dakota State) to make it 3-2.
In the fifth, the Dock Spiders started the inning with a single from Nick Mitchell (Western Illinois), who tallied his 27th multi-hit game of the summer in his 54th start. A stolen base and a head-up tag from second to third set up Tichy with an RBI opportunity. He brought Mitchell home on a groundout to third to increase the lead to 4-2.
The Woodchucks then got to Dock Spiders pitching staff in the bottom half. Hill smashed his second homer of the game, this time a grand slam to left, and Bradley Comer (UW-Stevens Point) brought home another to put the Woodchucks up with a 7-4 lead.
They would score two in the seventh off an error and another RBI hit from Comer before Nik Levensteins (North Georgia) made it 12-4 with a three-run home run in the eighth. Nick Mitchell would lead off the top of the ninth with a triple and would be brought in by Tyeler Hawkins (Louisville) to end the scoring at 12-5. The triple for Mitchell put him in a six-way tie for the second-most in a single season in Northwoods League history.
Christian Orr (1-0, Columbia International) took the win while Luke Bruckner (0-1, Concordia Univ.–Wisconsin) took the loss. The Dock Spiders continue their four-game road trip tomorrow against the Wisconsin Rapids Rafters. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 p.m.