Sports stats



FL River City Rascals

Big First Inning Gives Rascals Their Fifth Straight Loss

June 24, 2016 - Frontier League (FL)
River City Rascals News Release


Kyle Gaedele of the River City Rascals
Kyle Gaedele of the River City Rascals
(River City Rascals, Credit: Ricky Rick Photography)

The Grizzlies bats stayed hot and Gateway jumped on the River City Rascals with a four run first inning Friday night leading them to 6-2 victory in the series opener at CarShield Field.

The loss gives the Rascals a five game losing skid, their longest of the season but still remain over .500 at 19-17.

The Grizzlies offensive first inning began with two consecutive singles and then after Rascals starter Zeb Sneed retired Craig Massoni, cleanup hitter Brandon Thomas drew a walk to load the bases. Catcher Tyler Tewell did the damage lifting a fly ball to center and cleared the bases with a double to make it 3-0. Ben Waldrip finished off the inning with a RBI single and the Grizzlies gave their right-hander Will Landsheft a four run lead his first trip out to the mound.

Prior to this appearance, Landsheft was 1-4 with a 4.18 ERA but was stellar in his seven innings of work Friday night. He retired the Rascals in order in the opening frame and his offensive player of the game Tyler Tewell gave him another run to work with as he ripped a RBI double to score Craig Massoni for his fourth RBI in the first two innings. The run was unearned to Zeb Sneed as Massoni reached on an error with two outs in the inning.

Landsheft continued his solid performance and allowed just one hit through the first six innings of action, a single by Clint Freeman.

"We haven't been starting off real good offensively, but sometimes that's baseball and we just need to make adjustments," Freeman said. "We will be ok, we have a great team, skill wise and locker room wise to turn it around."

The Grizzlies carried his efforts over to the bats once again and Blake Brown notched his eighth home run of the year to put his team up 6-0. Sneed held the opponent scoreless the rest of his inning and would not come back out for the sixth finishing in line for the loss, giving up six runs (5 earned) in his shortest outing of the season.

Manager Steve Brook went to Josh Wright and he combined with Will Schierholz and Jared Wilson to hold the opponent scoreless the rest of the way, despite the bases being loaded with no outs in the top of the seventh.

After Schierholz escaped the bases loaded jam, the Rascals offense had their best inning of the game and sent six batters to the plate. Robby Enslen reached and then with two outs, Mike Jurgella doubled to give Clint Freeman a pair of runners in scoring position for the first time on the night. Clint Freeman delivered ripping a ball down the first base line driving in both runners and made the score 6-2.

In the bottom of the eighth, the Rascals brought the tying run to the on-deck circle with no outs via an Alexi Colon and Jason Merjano single but Landsheft's replacement, JaVaun West induced a strikeout and a double play ball to keep his team leading by four runs.

Those would be the final hits in the contest and Landsheft picked up his second win of the year. In seven innings, the righty allowed two runs (unearned) on four hits and struck out four.

With the win, the Grizzlies have won eight of their past ten games while the Rascals have dropped six of their last seven. The series continues Saturday night as the Rascals look to force the rubber match with Jason Ziegler on the mound looking to snap the losing skid.

First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 at CarShield Field.

Check out the River City Rascals Statistics




Images from this story

Kyle Gaedele of the River City Rascals
Kyle Gaedele of the River City Rascals
(Ricky Rick Photography)		   



Frontier League Stories from June 24, 2016


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

Other Recent River City Rascals Stories



Sports Statistics from the Stats Crew
OurSports Central