Sheboygan A’s Rally Past The Manitowoc Bandits

The Sheboygan A’s picked up a key victory Wednesday night as they defeated the Manitowoc Bandits 7-6 at Wildwood Baseball Park.

The A’s, now 21-17 overall and 8-5 in the Northeastern Wisconsin League, keep their regular season title hopes intact heading into a key rematch with the Green Bay Storm tonight.

A sacrifice fly by Ryan Schilter gave Sheboygan the early lead. Jordan Rennicke helped extend the lead with when he grounded into a double play, scoring Cody Marshall.

The Bandits would keep the A’s within reach though, as Mike Hall doubled in Sam Spurney, cutting the lead to one.

Manitowoc took its first lead of the evening during a big seventh inning. Matt Bartels got the scoring started with an RBI single, and Spurney would tack on two runs with his second double of the night.

Trailing 5-2, the A’s came back in the home half of the seventh. Back-to-back singles by Taylor Schwarz and Matt Schilter after a Justin Hunt walk helped load the bases. After a Doug Dekoning walk, Cody Marshall cleared the bases with a double to deep right for a 6-5 lead. Rennicke would give the A’s some insurance with an RBI single of his own.

“I am fortunate that my teammates put me in a position to come up with the bases loaded,” Marshall said. “I just tried to put a good swing on it.”

Ryan Eigenberger pitched a scoreless 1.2 innings for the win, and Dekoning held the Bandits to one run in the ninth for his first save of the season. Schilter and Ryan Schmitz each had two hits for the A’s and Marshall ended the night with three RBI’s.

“We never quit,” said A’s manager Chad Gehr. “(This win) is huge, we need to ride this momentum into our upcoming games.”

The A’s hit the road tonight to face the Green Bay Storm in a pivotal Northeastern Wisconsin League game. “I think there are a lot of ill feelings, I think everyone is going to be pumped up going into this game,” said Gehr.

The A’s will return home on Monday night to face The USA Military All Stars in a special exhibition. A patriotic pre-game is set to begin at 6:30 p.m. Game time is 7:30.

Brock Wetenkamp went 2-for-5 at the plate for Manitowoc with a double and Sam Spurney was 3-for-5 with a pair of doubles.

Banidts pitcher Brennan Rhode received the loss after striking out six and walking one batter in six and two-thirds innings of work. Only three of the seven runs he gave up were earned.

Story by: The Sheboygan Press and The Manitowoc Herald Times