Sports News
Dock Spiders Top Woodchucks in Season Opener
The Fond du
Lac Dock Spiders rang in the 2020 season with a thrilling 2-1 victory over the
Wisconsin Woodchucks on Wednesday night at Herr-Baker Field at Marian
University.
Ryan
Bergert
started what would be a phenomenal night for Dock Spiders pitching, striking
out two of the three batters he faced in the first.
Taylor
Jackson
reached first on a Woodchuck’s fielding error, and would then advance to third
base following a base hit from Aaron
Anderson. One batter later, Matt McCormick hit a soft fly ball into
shallow left field that allowed Jackson to tag and score from third base to
give the Dock Spiders the 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first.
Bergert
finished his night with two hitless innings pitched and three strikeouts. Cameron Jones came in
for relief in the third inning and finished his night with two and one-third
innings pitched and three strikeouts.
Drew
Irvine relieved
Jones in the fifth and continued the pitching dominance, striking out two
batters in an inning and two-thirds of work.
Trace
Hoffman
entered the contest in the top half of the seventh and put in the performance
of the night, striking out five batters in only two innings on the mound.
The Dock
Spiders got their second and last run in the bottom of the 7th when Ryan Ritter hit a
sacrifice fly to center that scored Parker
Noland from third that extended the lead for Fond du Lac, 2-0.
Fond du Lac’s
bullpen held the Woodchucks hitless through seven innings until Raul Ortega drilled a
line drive into left-center to give Wisconsin their first hit of the game.
Hoffman fanned the next three batters to finish the inning.
The Woodchucks
would threaten in the top of the ninth, after Adam Frank and Kyle Hess knocked
back-to-back base hits against Dock Spiders pitcher Theron Denlinger. Leighton Banjoff lined
a pitch through the infield to score Frank, but Denlinger would close it down
and strike out two of the last three batters to lock in the win for Fond du
Lac.
The Dock
Spiders will travel to Wausau, July 2nd to take on the Wisconsin
Woodchucks (0-1) at 6:35 pm.