(GREEN BAY ROCKERS) WISCONSIN RAPIDS – The Green Bay Rockers took advantage of a late inning collapse by the Wisconsin Rapids Rafters pitching staff to secure a 5-4 victory. Behind 12 walks and seven hits, Green Bay moves to 1-0 on the new season after their victory at Witter Field.
The scoring started early with Eric Fernandez crossing home on a wild pitch in the top of the first. Wisconsin Rapids would then tie things up on a sacrifice fly in the bottom half off the bat of Harrison Engskov.
Jiyeong Park struggled out of the gate for Green Bay, walking six batters in 2.1 innings pitched. The big righty was, however, able to work himself out of trouble, giving up just one earned run. Keaton Baird would come in to pitch in relief in the third. The Rafters had the lone home run in the contest with a solo blast from Jack Zeller, the late substitution prior to the game. His towering moonshot cut the Rockers lead in half at 3-2.
The sixth innings is where things turned around quickly. Dylan Frank would rope an RBI double down the left field line off of Baird to tie the game at three. Dalton Forck would then enter for the Rockers and surrender an RBi single from Jax LeGrand to give Wisconsin Rapids their first lead of the evening.
Rafters left-hander, Kade Irons, was mowing through the Rockers order. He went four innings pitched with one hit and five strikeouts. He was then replaced with Braden Wellen who was trying for the save in the ninth. He would walk four Rockers to even the score at 4-4. The control issues for the Rafters wouldn’t stop there as Blaine Davis would then walk in the go ahead run for Green Bay. Ricky Howell nailed down the save in the bottom half of the ninth to propel the Rockers to 1-0 on the year,
Josh Merrill will turn to Caden Crask-Weeks Tuesday as the Rockers look to start the 2026 campaign with a sweep over their division foe.
The game can be heard beginning at 6:05 on 99.7 and 101.9 WNFL.
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