By Murray Gleffe
Correspondent
ASHWAUBENON—Justice Bigbie (Western Carolina) hit a grand slam and two-run homer to lift Madison to a 15-2 victory over Green Bay in a Northwoods League baseball game June 30 at Capital Credit Union Park.
Bigbie had eight RBI for the game.
Trevor Marreel was the winning pitcher for the Mallards, while Logan Lee took the loss for the Booyah, giving up eight runs in just 3 1/3 innings pitched.
The Booyah wore a uniform that bore pictures of both past and present-day members of the armed forces that serve the United States as part of ‘Military Appreciation Day.’
“When the guys saw the uniform, they were excited,” said Tom Carty, Green Bay Booyah head coach. “The pictures that were displayed on the front and back were a tribute to these men and women that serve our great nation.”
The Mallards (24-10) wasted no time putting runs together in the top of the first.
With Austin Blazevic and Drew Benefield on after a walk and hit-by-pitch, Andre Nnebe singled to bring Blazevic home to give Madison a 1-0 lead.
Back-to-back doubles by Drew Williams and Ryne Stanley scored three more runs to give Madison a 4-0 lead.
While the road team was hitting on all cylinders, Green Bay struggled to get any kind of rhythm going with its bats.
“You can’t give a league-leading team like Madison early momentum,” added Carty. “We’ve beaten them three times in the first half of the schedule, but we couldn’t get timely hits today. We also had to go into our bullpen quite early with four relievers.”
In the top of the fourth, with Madison leading 6-0, Bigbie was at it again.
With one out, he laced a single in the gap that scored two more, putting the Mallards up 8-0.
As if Bigbie’s good start wasn’t enough, he hit a grand slam for good measure in the top of the fifth for a double-digit lead.
“They have seven or eight hitters that are averaging over .300 on the season,” said Carty. “You have to limit their hits, which we didn’t go a very good job of tonight.”
The Booyah (15-19) finally got on the board in the bottom of the fifth.
After a lead-off walk to John Tuccillo (Stony Brook), Ty Herrenbruck (Pittsburgh State) laced a double to center to score Tuccillo.
Cooper Morrison (UC Davis) then hit a two-out single that scored Herrenbruck to score another run for Green Bay, but that would be the last of the scoring for the home team.
The Booyah have lost five in a row and six of seven.
They will be back in action when they travel to Witter Field Monday and Tuesday night to take on the Wisconsin Rapids Rafters.
Box score
Madison: 410 350 200—15 15 1
Green Bay: 000 020 000—2 4 3