Alonso Hits for the Cycle as Beach Bums Hold Off Gateway
Published on August 19, 2009 under Frontier League (FL)
Traverse City Beach Bums News Release
SAUGET, Ill. - John Alonso hit for the cycle to help the Traverse City Beach Bums hold off the Gateway Grizzlies 7-6 on Wednesday night at GCS Ballpark.
Alonso became the second player in franchise history to hit for the cycle, capping it with a triple off the top of the wall in the ninth inning. He doubled in the first, homered in the second, and singled in the sixth before his triple.
The first inning saw a lot of action for the second consecutive night. Brad Miller singled on a 1-2 offering from Gateway starter Paige Dumont with one out and Michael Campbell followed by hammering a 2-0 pitch completely out of GCS Ballpark in right to give Traverse City a 2-0 edge. Joseph Scaperotta homered to right for Gateway in the bottom of the first to cut the lead in half.
Traverse City broke it open by scoring four runs in the second. Andrew Stafford and Brad Miller singled and moved up on a wild pitch. Michael Campbell drove them both in with a sharp single to right. John Alonso homered down the leftfield line to push the lead to 6-1. Joseph Scaperotta homered again in the third inning off of Beach Bums starter Jason Kiley, a two-run homer over the wall in right to trim the edge to 6-3.
Michael Campbell drove in his fifth run of the game in the fourth. Brad Miller singled to start the inning and stole second before scoring a double down the rightfield line by Campbell. Breck Draper hit a solo homer in the fifth to bring Gateway within 7-4, and the Grizzlies added another pair in the sixth when Charlie Lisk singled in Joseph Scaperotta and Wilson Matos connected on his seventh longball of the year to chop the lead to just a run at 7-6.
Jason Kiley threw six innings to record the win, overcoming four homers and allowing six runs on 11 hits. B.J. Hagen struck out the final nine batters of the game to post the save, the second of his professional career.
Traverse City finished with 12 hits in the game. In addition to Alonso's four, Brad Miller and Michael Campbell each added three. Campbell matched a team season high with five RBIs.
The Beach Bums will conclude the series tomorrow night with another 8:05pm game. RHP Kevin Reese (7-6, 4.96) will take the ball for the Beach Bums while Gateway counters with RHP Nate Melek (4-8, 6.08). The contest can be heard live on The Fox FM.
Sandbox Bits
Brad Miller hit for the cycle on September 1, 2008 to become the first player in franchise history to hit for the cycle
Alonso's homer was his 10th of the season, tying him for the single season franchise mark; Kyle Maunus homered 10 times last season while Aaron Garza set the standard in 2007
The four-hit performance by Alonso was his second in as many games; The Beach Bums have produced five four-hit games this season to equal the team single game record
B.J. Hagen had struck out 17 hitters all season in 29.2 innings of work before his nine strikeout performance
The Beach Bums have posted 33 hits and 22 runs in the first two games of the series; The win gave them the season series with Gateway
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