The Mallards jumped out to an early lead against the Eau Claire Express and the bullpen held on to save a 4-3 Mallards win in front of 5,443 at the “Duck Pond.” Kyle Barry worked six strong innings to earn the win and improve to 3-0 on the year. He allowed four hits and one earned run. Luke Stewart delivered the decisive blow, a 3-run home run to right to give the Mallards a 4-0 lead in the fourth, and Andy Deain and Alex Rivers pitched the final three innings to keep the Mallards lead intact. The win moves the Mallards to 12-6 overall and puts them in a tie with La Crosse for second place in the South Division, three games behind division-leading Wisconsin.

Mallards right-hander Barry worked through the first inning one-two-three, needing just 10 pitches to retire the Express. Russell Harben led off the bottom half of the first with a walk and went to second on a sacrifice bunt by Drew Martin, but would be stranded on third following a pair of groundouts. The game remained scoreless until the bottom of the fourth, when the Mallards pushed four runs across.

Martin walked to start things off and moved to third on a one-out single to right by Rob Lyerly. The base knock extended Lyerly’s hitting streak to seven games. With runners on first and third, Eric Nielsen dropped down a sacrifice bunt that brought in Martin to open the scoring and moved Lyerly to second. With two away Josh Groves drew a walk, bringing up Stewart. He blasted a 1-0 pitch from Express starter Robert Kilcrease into the new Duck Blind addition in right field for a three-run home run and a 4-0 Mallards lead.

But the Express came right back in the next half-inning and cut that lead in half. Joe Bonfe led off the inning and reached on an error by third baseman Aaron Bray, and moved to second on a single to right field by Pat Colwell. Barry got Landis Ware to strike out swinging, but gave up a double to Russell Hopkins that plated Bonfe and advanced Colwell to third. Brooks Pinckard then stepped to the plate and drove a ball to center field that was deep enough to bring Colwell the remaining 90 feet to make the score 4-2.

The score remained the same until the Express were able to score another in the top of the seventh off new pitcher Deain to bring themselves within one. Deain was able to work out of a jam to get erase any further threats in the seventh thanks to a lineout to Martin at shortstop, who doubled off the runner on third.

With the loss, the Express are 7-12 on the season and will try to even up the series Wednesday night at the Duck Pond. First Pitch is scheduled for 7:05.