La Crosse, WI – July 21, 2012 – The Wisconsin Rapids Rafters (6-11, 22-29 overall) scored first Saturday night once again but dropped to the La Crosse Loggers (8-8, 34-17 overall) for the second straight night, losing 5-2.
Bo Henning (SO, Sacramento City College) tossed by far his strongest start, in his return to Copeland Park. The right-hander was making his first start in the Lumberyard since he faced the Rafters in a Loggers’ uniform on June 22. The former Logger fired 6.2 innings, giving up five runs, but only two earned, off of five hits. He struck out five, his highest total in the cranberry, gold, and cream.
The Rafters pegged him to a one-run lead in the first on an Alex Bacon (SO, Univ. of North Florida) RBI sacrifice fly. The Loggers though, tallied three in the bottom half, two unearned. On two errors in the innings, La Crosse touched home three times on three hits, two ground ball hits and a shattered bat base hit.
The next five innings, La Crosse had only three baserunners. Henning hit a batter in the third, allowed a single in the fourth, and walked a man in the sixth—that’s it.
The Rafters got closer, making it a one-run contest on a line-drive solo homer from Brandon Downes (FR, Univ. of Virginia), his fourth, in the fifth inning. Down 3-2 in the sixth, Sean Godfrey (SO, Ball St. Univ.) walked to lead off Jesse Holiday’s final inning. Getting to third on a sacrifice bunt and his league-leading 26th stolen base, Godfrey was 90 feet away from tying the game with less than two outs. Logger reliever Jacob Dorris stranded the runner at third, however, getting the next two outs.
Henning gave up another two runs in the seventh, one of them unearned, in his final inning, which was finished up by Kenny Towns (FR, Univ. of Virginia). Dorris tossed 2.2 scoreless, hitless innings against the Rafters, and Jonathan Van Eaton picked up his division-best 10th save. Dorris hasn’t allowed a hit against the Rafters in 10.2 innings this season.
Sunday, the Rafters head back to Copeland Park one more time, a 5:05 pm start, for the last game against La Crosse this season. Cole Webb (2-2, 4.91 ERA) faces James Guillen (3-2, 3.32 ERA).
