Milkmen Polish Off Season Sweep of Canaries

by Jonathan Michel

Franklin, WI – David Washington homered for the second straight game, Ryan Zimmerman threw 6 scoreless innings, and the Milwaukee Milkmen rolled to a 5-1 victory over the Sioux Falls Canaries.

 Zimmerman got the start on the mound for the Milkmen and immediately proved he was not messing around, picking off Canaries shortstop Angelo Altavilla at first with a lightning-quick throw. One batter later, Cade Gotta was a strike three victim of Zimmerman’s and subsequently hit the showers early on. Gotta heavily disputed the call of the home plate umpire and threw his bat, prompting a quick ejection. 

David Washington hit his second home run in as many days, sending a pitch from Canaries starter Blake Svoboda barely over the left field fence. 

“I was hoping it had a chance,” Washington laughed. “It was definitely too high to land in play so thankfully it was lucky enough to get a couple extra feet there.” 

Trey Martin followed up with a walk, stolen base, and the second run of the game for Milwaukee when Aaron Hill laced a line drive to left field. Svoboda couldn’t find his footing in his first outing of the year, allowing two singles and a walk afterwards. Anibal Sierra reached the 20 RBI mark for his season, singling home Hill. 

The Canaries put Jabari Henry and Zane Gurwtiz on base to start the second, but Zimmerman recovered with two strikeouts. Milkmen catcher Christian Correa ended the fourth inning by throwing  out Henry trying to steal third after Mike Hart was Zimmerman’s 6th strikeout victim. 

Washington gave the Milkmen offense another jolt in the 5th, roping a double to the left field corner, scoring 2 more and increasing the Milwaukee lead to 5-0. Brett Vertigan singled and Logan Trowbridge walked to start the inning. 

Franklin native Takoda Metoxen came in to relieve Zimmerman in the 7th inning and the Milwaukee starter exited with one of his best stat lines of the year. Through 6 innings, Zimmerman posted 9 strikeouts and 5 walks while only allowing 3 hits and no runs across. 

“It’s great,” Zimmerman said when asked about his stellar performance in front of a large contingent of family. “They come as much as they can. Obviously, having a good game for [my mom] always feels good too.”

Canaries catcher Garrett Hope managed to land on second after a broken-bat bloop to right field and it seemed like Sioux Falls would finally get on the scoreboard. Trey Martin of the Milkmen had other ideas, snagging a deep fly ball from Wyatt Ulrich on the run to put an end to the inning.

Sioux Falls loaded the bases in the top of the 8th off Milwaukee’s Ryan Dunne after singles from Shamoy Christopher and Henry as well as a walk from Jordan Ebert. Dunne prolonged the Canaries’ scoring woes by inducing a ground ball out to Washington to end the inning. 

Sioux Falls managed to get on the scoreboard in the ninth thanks to an RBI single from Wyatt Ulrich but it was much too little, too late. 

With the win, Milwaukee finishes off a season sweep of the Canaries and the Milkmen have won 17 of their last 19 games. 

“Baseball is always a game where it flows, sometimes you’re doing well, sometimes you’re not. We do a great job competing regardless if we’re playing well or if we’re grinding; we have a team full of guys that can compete,” Washington said. 

The Milkmen kick off a new series at home against the Fargo-Moorhead Redhawks on Friday with first pitch at 6:35 P.M.

Tickets and more information at MilwaukeeMilkmen.com