After getting rained out of Saturday’s game with Dairyland League-leading Wausau, the Merrill Rangers hit Abbotsford the next day. Abby took advantage of free passes on the way to an 8-2 victory.
“We struggled to throw strikes early and we just didn’t string any hits together,” Merrill manager John Annis said. “Defensively we played all right. We made some solid plays and a couple of errors behind Zach (Wendorf).”
Wendorf surrendered 6 runs on 3 hits, 6 walks and 6 hit-batters in 3-1/3 innings. Luke Golisch relieved with the bases loaded, gave up a two-run bloop single, then shut Abby down to 2 hits, 1 walk and 7 strike-outs in 4-2/3 innings.
Merrill had taken a 1-0 lead in the top of the 1st, when Alex Cordova reached on an error, stole second, moved up to third on a grounder and scored on a Golisch single to center field.
Cordova walked, reached 2nd on a passed ball and got home on a Chris Grunenwald RBI hit in the 8th.
Michael Koppelman had 2 hits, and Grunenwald, Brad Kanitz and Golisch helped Merrill top out at 5 hits.