TRAVERSE CITY — Coming soon to Traverse City: A few new pitchers.
Traverse City Pit Spitters fans need to head out to Sunday’s home contest against Battle Creek if they want to see Carson Fischer again this season.
The Spitters right-hander will make his last start of the year Sunday after going four innings Tuesday as the opener of a mostly bullpen day as TC dropped a 7-4 Northwoods League baseball game to Madison at Turtle Creek Stadium in Traverse City.
One of only two Spitters pitchers with more than 20 innings this season, he’ll take a 2.17 earned-run average into his final start.
“We kind of used him as an opener today,” TC manager Josh Rebandt said. “We got more out of him as an opener than we were expecting because his pitch count was low. He wanted to give us one more start, and we wanted to give him one more start. So come Sunday, he’ll start again.”
Fischer recently committed to the University of Miami after entering the transfer portal. The 6-foot-4 junior from Hudsonville was second on the TC staff with 29 innings pitched this summer, after logging 222.1 frames over the last three springs for Davenport.
After Fischer tossed four quality innings, the fifth proved costly for Traverse City. Fischer pitched four scoreless innings, allowing four hits, no walks and striking out two in front of an announced crowd of 1,397 human spectators and 42 canines on Barks and Brews night.
With TC up 3-0, Madison put five fifth-inning runs on the board, including a bases-loaded walk and a two-run error. Kellen Roberts was charged for only two earned runs, and Trent Reed came on the finish the frame.
“That middle inning cost us,” Rebandt said. “We had a couple plays defensively that could have gone our way potentially. We’ve beaten ourselves. There’s been I feel like one game this year where we’ve been handed it to us and that was when Kenosha was here and they shut us out. The rest of our losses, it’s either been some mental lapses, or maybe some miscues or maybe just not coming through with the big hits. I say that in a positive way, though, because I think we’re really close.”
The Pits Spitters pitching staff received one new addition Tuesday, as Flint Powers High School senior and Oakland commit Grant Garman reported and was in uniform, fresh off a state championship June 15.
Reed would end up throwing 3.1 innings, allowing only two runners. Madison, which won seven of its last 10, added a ninth-inning run on a Shai Robinson RBI single and another on a Jake Munroe groundout.
Carter Hain drove in catcher Daniel Jackson on a sixth-inning fielder’s choice to cut the deficit to one before the Mallards tacked on two more in the ninth.
Madison (19-8) is chasing Great Lakes West leader Wausau as the first half of the season ends next Tuesday. The Spitters (13-15) trail Rockford by 7.5 games in the Great Lakes East.
The Spitters staked Fischer with a 3-0 lead in the second, with Brett Rozman coming across on an error. Jackson managed to steal second base on a pickoff attempt to first, sliding between the legs of second baseman Agustin Gutierrez. Brandon Chang walked with the bases loaded to bring Jackson home, and Ethan Guerra’s sacrifice fly brought in Hain.
Will Vierling, a sophomore catcher for the University of Louisville and college teammate of TC Central grad Josh Klug and TC West alum Wyatt Danilowicz for the Cardinals, did not play for the Mallards. The cousin of Detroit Tigers outfielder Matt Vierling is hitting .184 for Madison.
The two teams face off again at 7:05 p.m. Wednesday at Turtle Creek Stadium.