The Wausau Woodchucks (16-16) used four home runs to overcome the Green Bay Rockers (10-22) in an 11-6 victory at Capital Credit Union Park Thursday night.
Under skipper Corey Thompson, the Woodchucks are now 19-1 in their last 20 meetings with Green Bay.
What some thought would be a pitcher’s duel between Woodchucks starter Aidan Major (West Virginia) and Green Bay’s Dylan Carter turned into a slugfest early. Both starters entered the game with a sub-2 ERA but were hit hard.
The Woodchucks scored two runs in the top of the first but surrendered three in the home half. Brent Widder (Evansville) led off with one of the three doubles he would hit in the game, scoring on a throwing error drawn by Hunter Dorraugh (San Jose State).
Zach Levenson (Miami) evened the score with a solo shot to left-center field, his second of the summer. Just two batters later, Collin Reuter (BYU) hit a go-ahead blast to right field, his first as a Woodchuck.
Major kept the Rockers in check until the fifth, when Green Bay used a two-run homer to take a 5-4 lead.
But in the seventh, the Woodchucks rallied to score three runs that would ultimately decide the game. After Widder doubled, Dorraugh drove him in with an RBI single off of the right field video wall. Mark Shallenberger (Evansville) came up next, launching a home run to the right field corner to put Wausau ahead 7-5.
The Chucks added insurance runs in the eighth on another run-scoring single by Shallenberger, who is now hitting a team-best .309 this summer.
In the ninth, Ryan Sepede (BYU) crushed his third homer of the season, a no-doubter that landed over the left-field lawn.
Trevor Ernt (San Jose State) improved his record to 2-0 with two-plus innings of middle relief Thursday night. The lefty allowed just two hits and one run.
His college teammate Carter Heninger (San Jose State) fired two scoreless innings to slam the door, keeping his ERA at a clean 0.00 over 18 innings as a Woodchuck.
In the win, the Woodchucks matched a season-high 13 hits – recorded by eight different players in the lineup. All nine players reached base, and seven of them drove in at least one run in the series-sweeping victory.
The Woodchucks play at Traverse City tonight.
To take the second game of the series the Wisconsin Rapids Rafters took down the Kokomo Jackrabbits 7-2.
Harry Owen (Consumnes River College) had the second hit of the game in the second inning and scored on a double by Seth Stroh (Wichita State University). Owen had two hits with a double and Stroh had two hits with two doubles. Ben Ross (Notre Dame College) led the offense with three hits and a stolen base.
Josh Hewitt (California State University, Fullerton) had the win throwing three innings with four strikeouts.
The Rafters host Lakeshore tonight.
