Non-League News: Manitowoc Bandits Take Down De Pere

MANITOWOC — It has been a rough week for the Manitowoc Bandits.

They were swept at home in a doubleheader against Kenosha by a combined score of 16-0 on Saturday and then followed that up with home losses to the Sheboygan A’s and the Green Bay Storm. The loss to the Storm on Wednesday was tough to swallow considering the Bandits were up 7-0 after three innings only to lose 9-8 in 10.

Manitowoc took a different approach offensively in Thursday’s game against the De Pere River Bandits. Instead of jumping out to a big lead, Manitowoc was held without a base runner until the sixth inning.

Despite the slow start, the Bandits were able to rout De Pere 11-1 in eight innings.

“It was surely needed, that’s for sure,” player/manager Josh Krowiorz said. “We’ve been finding each and every way to lose games lately. It was nice to come out and pound a few hits and fell good about ourselves again. We haven’t done that in a while.”

Former Manitowoc Lincoln player Brennan Rhode was nearly unhittable on the mound, tossing a one-hitter to earn the win. The lone hit allowed turned into De Pere’s only run when the ball got past Krowiorz in centerfield. Jeff Thomas was credited with a single and a three-base error.

“It was an unbelievable start for Rhode,” Krowiorz said. “He hasn’t got as many starts as the other guys even though he’s deserved that chance on a regular basis. We tried to keep him fresh and knew we’d get quality out of him. Should have been a shutout obviously, but he pitched a hell of a game.”

Rhode had the strikeout pitch working early, fanning seven batters through the first three innings. Knowing that his team needed him to eat up some innings, Rhode kept his pitch count down and finished with 10 punch-outs.

“I threw my fastball for strikes and didn’t walk guys,” Rhode said. “It’s not like I wasn’t trying to strike people out but I realized that we didn’t have many pitchers left so started pitching for contact.”

It looked as if Rhode’s gem might have gone to waste with the Bandits bats going hitless through 5 innings.

“We’ve been putting runs up lately with nine and eight in the last two games so I wasn’t worried,” Rhode said. “I knew they’d come around.”

Galen Duff doubled to start the sixth inning for the Bandits. He would later score on an RBI single by Mike Hall and Krowiorz gave the Bandits the lead with a two-run single to right. Manitowoc went on to score six in the sixth, three in the seventh and finished it off with two runs in the eighth.

“It was nice to finally come out and play well,” Bandits second baseman Nat Richter said. “We didn’t throw the ball around and we got good pitching. We hit the ball well. It took us six innings but we got it going eventually. It’s just nice to come out and play solid for once. The last week has been pretty rough. The big thing was Rhode coming in, throwing strikes and working quickly. Getting us ground balls and easy chances. We had the top of the lineup coming up for the third time in the sixth and we just hit the ball hard. Eventually the floodgates just opened for us.”

Duff finished the game 3-for-5 at the plate with two doubles and two RBI. Hall was 2-for-3 with three RBI and Krowiorz was 2-for-4 with four RBI.

The win improves the Bandits’ record to 8-10 overall and 5-4 in the Northeastern Wisconsin Baseball League.

“Coming home and losing those first two was really a gut shot,” Krowiorz said. “We were really pumped up about playing some Northeastern League games this week. We wanted to get two or all three of them. Overall it was disappointing, this home stand, but with half the season over in the big picture we’re still around .500 with another month of baseball left. We’re certainly not out of it at this point.”

View a photo gallery of the game.

Manitowoc 11, De Pere 1 (8 innings)
De Pere 010 000 00 – 1 1 2
Manitowoc 000 006 32 – 11 9 1
WP: Rhode 8 ip, 1 h, 10 k, 1 w.
LP: Jara 5.2 ip, 5 h, 6 er, 4 k, 2 w.
Leading hitters – Manitowoc: Duff 3-5, 2 2b, 2rbi; Hall 2-3, 3rbi; Krowiorz 2-4, 4rbi.

Story by: Manitowoc Herald Times
Photo(s) by: Doug Sundin (Manitowoc Herald Times)