Beach Bums Fall in Slugfest
May 31, 2012 - Frontier League (FL)
Traverse City Beach Bums News Release
O'FALLON, MO - The Traverse City Beach Bums scored a season-high nine runs, but fell in a wild game, 12-9 against the River City Rascals.
For the first time in the last three games, it was the Beach Bums who got on the board first as Traverse City took a 2-0 lead in the second inning as an error by Rascals' third baseman Josh Workman score Marcus Nidiffer who led off the inning with a single. Brian Heere stepped in next and lined a single to center to score Ryan Still who had been hit by a pitch.
The lead was short-lived, however, as River City would score four in the second and two in the third to take a 6-2 lead.
Undaunted, Traverse City rallied again in the fourth. Still was hit by a pitch for the second time in the game leading off the inning followed by a Kyle Eveland walk. Heere would follow with a walk of his own to load the bases. Kyle Colligan came up next and roped a double into the right-centerfield gap to clear the bases and cut the lead to 6-5. In the see-saw battle, though, RC would plate two of their own in the bottom of the frame to retake a three-run lead.
The fifth inning saw the visitors go right back on the offensive. Matt Howard was hit by a pitch and Still was walked to lead off the inning. A passed ball moved the runners to second and third where they stood with one out when Heere collected his third hit of the night, an RBI single to right, bringing in Howard and making it 8-6 and moving Still to third. Colligan followed with an RBI groundout to score Still and make it 8-7.
With Heere on second and one out, Jose Vargas stepped in and laced a single to left to score Heere and tie the game at 8-8. On a 2-2 count to Chase Burch, Vargas stole second. Burch would capitalize on the situation, lining a single back through the middle to score Vargas and put TC up 9-8.
River City would strike again in the fifth inning as the Rascals loaded the bases with one out. After a strikeout of Jeremy Synan for the second out of the inning, Jason Patton worked through nine Scott Dunn pitches before clearing the rightfield wall with the 10th one to create the final score.
Doug Shields (1-0) earned the win in his professional debut with three scoreless innings. Daniel Umberger collected his fourth save. Matt Miller (1-2) took the loss for Traverse City.
Offensively, every Beach Bums player had at least one hit or run scored. Brian Heere and Chase Burch each extended their hitting streaks to eight games and Kyle Colligan had four RBI.
Traverse City will send Brooks Belter (0-0, 2.25) to the mound in the series finale against Preston Vancil (1-0, 0.90) for the Rascals. Coverage on Sunny Country 101.9 begins at 7:45 p.m. outside of an 8:05 scheduled first pitch.
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