BY RICH PALZEWIC
CORRESPONDENT
GREEN BAY – Rain, rain go away, come back another day.
That pretty much summed up the day for the Green Bay Bullfrogs’ baseball team in a 3-2, rain-shortened Northwoods League loss to the Madison Mallards July 1 at Joannes Stadium.
With Madison leading with two outs in the seventh, Mother Nature opened up the floodgates with torrential rain, leaving the field unplayable after the storm. Since the game was called at that point, the one run the Mallards scored in the seventh came off the board.
“That was some heavy rain,” said Green Bay manager Kirk Shrider. “I was hoping we could get the game in, but it wasn’t meant to be. Obviously there was plenty of daylight left after it calmed down, but it would have taken two hours of prep time to get the field back into playing shape. With playing six games in the last five days and five bus trips in there, my guys didn’t need to be out there raking the field for that long. Not that the game wasn’t winnable if we kept playing, but we got out of here at 4:00 and will steal some rest. With not playing until 7:00 (Monday night), it’s almost like a full day off for the guys.”
Madison – who had three hits in the second inning – scored two runs in the second on an error and a wild pitch by starting pitcher Leo Perez (Texas Corpus Christi), who dropped to 3-2 on the season.
“It was tough with the rain, especially with trying to manage the bullpen,” Shrider said. “I was very happy with how Kenny Carrillo (Golden West College) pitched after Leo came out. He gave us a chance to get back into the game, which we did.”
Carrillo gave up just one earned run in his four innings of work.
The ‘Frogs (12-22) didn’t go away quietly after they scored two runs in the fourth on an RBI groundout by Blake Nelson (Michigan) and a sacrifice fly by Cooper Morrison (UC Davis).
Riley Mihalik (Rider) reached on an error to lead off the inning, before Luke Robinson (Western Carolina) advanced him to third with a double.
The South Division leading Mallards (26-8) went ahead by the final margin in the fifth with a single tally.
Robinson had a pair of hits for Green Bay, while Ben Keizer (Michigan) also saw action on the mound.
The ‘Frogs will continue the home stand by hosting the Wisconsin Woodchucks for the first time all season in the first game of a two-game series.
“It’s a little unusual facing a club just two times in the first half of the season and then six in the second half,” Shrider said. “It will be nice to see a new team come in here for a change.”
Box Score
Madison: 020 010 – 3 6 1
Green Bay: 000 100 – 2 4 1