MWL1 Peoria Chiefs

Chiefs Beat Bees 10-3 Friday

Published on August 14, 2009 under Midwest League (MWL1)
Peoria Chiefs News Release


Peoria, IL - Chris Archer fired six strong innings and Junior Lake blasted his first career grand slam as the Peoria Chiefs defeated the Burlington Bees 10-3 Friday night in front of 5,579 fans at O'Brien Field. The Chiefs have won 18 of 22 contests and concluded an eight-game homestand going 6-2.

For the sixth time in eight games on the homestand, the Chiefs scored in the first inning. Brett Jackson walked and Ryan Flaherty came through with his sixth straight hit, a single to center to put two on for Rebel Ridling. The Chiefs first baseman hit a sharp bouncing ball towards second baseman Fernando Garcia who had the ball ricochet off his glove and into shallow center field, allowing Jackson to score from second on the play to give the Chiefs a 1-0 lead. On that same sequence, Flaherty was thrown out trying to advance to third and the Chiefs inflicted no further damage on Burlington starter and former Kansas City Royals shortstop Tony Pena Jr.

Peoria poured on four more in the bottom of the fourth. After back-to-back walks to Kyler Burke and D.J. LeMahieu to start the frame, Jovan Rosa singled through the left side of the infield to load the bases for Junior Lake. Lake, who was just 1-for-8 with the bases loaded coming into his fourth inning at-bat Friday, blasted one of the longest home runs hit at O'Brien Field this season, the Chiefs fourth grand slam of the year to make it a 5-0 score. Lake's slam cleared O'Brien Field entirely, landed on Jefferson Street and ended up near the Caterpillar building well beyond the left field limits.

The Chiefs added two more in the fifth. Ridling singled and Burke walked leading off the inning. After a wild pitch to move both runners up 90 feet, LeMahieu delivered a sacrifice fly to score Ridling. Rosa came up and smacked a double to right-center to plate Burke and give the Chiefs a 7-0 advantage to chase reliever Mike Lehmann from the game.

Burlington scored their first two runs in the top half of the sixth. Having tallied only one hit against Archer through the first five frames, the Chiefs right-hander gave up a RBI single to David Wood and a run-scoring groundout to Nick Francis to make it 7-2.

The Chiefs got those two runs back in the bottom of the seventh. Ridling and Burke scorched consecutive doubles to start the frame to give the Chiefs an 8-2 lead. With one out, the doubles parade continued on Rosa's second two-bagger of the night to plate Burke and make it a 9-2 ballgame. Peoria tacked on their 10th run on a RBI groundout by Flaherty in the bottom of the eighth.

Archer retired the first 10 batters he faced before finally surrendering a baserunner with one out in the fourth. The right-handed fireballer matched a season-high with six innings pitched and allowed two runs on four hits while walking none and striking out seven. Alberto Cabrera came on and fired three innings, giving up one run on two hits and striking out one to pick up his first save of the season.

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Midwest League Stories from August 14, 2009


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