MWL1 Peoria Chiefs

Chiefs Rally Falls Short

Published on August 28, 2007 under Midwest League (MWL1)
Peoria Chiefs News Release


Peoria, IL- The Peoria Chiefs rallied from a 9-0 deficit to tie the game before falling to the Kane County Cougars 10-9 Tuesday night in the wildest home game of the season. The loss drops the Chiefs one game behind Cedar Rapids in the wild card race and Peoria is now tied with Kane County with six games remaining.

With the game tied 9-9 in the top of the ninth, Cougars centerfielder Jermaine Mitchell started the inning with a double. Alex Maestri relieved Matt Maradeo and got the first out before intentionally walking Greg Dowling. Haas Pratt hit a grounder to third and Marquez Smith threw home but Mitchell slid in under the tag for a 10-9 Cougars lead. The Chiefs got out of the inning with a double play liner. Jim Adduci led off the bottom of the ninth with a walk but was thrown out stealing on a close play at second. Andrew Carignan then struck out Smith and Blake Lalli grounded out to shortstop to end the game.

With Kane County adding two runs in the top of the seventh to put the Chiefs deficit at 9-0, the Chiefs offense finally broke through against Banwart in the seventh inning. Adduci doubled to start the inning and Smith reached on an error by the third basemen to put two on with no outs. Lalli lined a single into center to score Adduci to make it a 9-1 game. With Smith at third after a fly out by Russ Canzler, Wellington Castillo lined a ball off the glove of Alex Valdez at third for his second error of the inning to score Smith and make it 9-2. Darwin Barney picked up an RBI base hit to make it 9-3 game. Brian Leclerc followed with a two-run single to left that scored Castillo and Barney and brought the Chiefs to within four at 9-5. Reliever Nick Walters came on to retire Ty Wright to end the inning after the Chiefs sent nine men to plate.

The Chiefs tied the game 9-9 in the eighth inning in one of the wildest innings of baseball played this season. Walters walked Smith to start the inning and Smith was forced at second on a grounder by Lalli. Canzler singled through the right side to put runners on first and second with one out. Carignan relieved Walters and struck out Castillo for the first out. He then fanned Barney but the ball went to the backstop and everyone was safe. Leclerc picked up his second hit and third RBI with a base hit to score Lalli and make it a 9-6 game. Carignan struck out Malone but again the ball went to the backstop allowing Malone to reach and Canzler to score to make it 9-7. With Wright at the plate, Carignan fired his second wild pitch that allowed Barney to score and pull the Chiefs to within one at 9-8. The second wild pitch of the at bat and third of the inning allowed Leclerc to score to tie the game 9-9. Wright then flew out to end the frame.

Kane County got on the board in the first inning against Chiefs starter Arik Hempy. After the lead off man Jermaine Mitchell reached on an infield single, he moved to second on a failed run down by the Chiefs defense. Hempy then got Josh Horton to ground out to second but issued two walks before firing a pitch to the backstop that allowed Mitchell to score from third to make it 1-0. Hempy followed with his third consecutive walk to Alex Valdez before striking out Todd Johnson for the second out. With the bases load, Hempy walked Ramiro Mendez on four pitches to plate Greg Dowling to make it 2-0 and send Hempy to an early exit. Reliever Michael Bartek came on to get the final out of the inning and strand the bases loaded.

The Cougars added to their lead in the second inning against Bartek. Larry Cobb led the inning off with a single to left and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Mitchell. Horton reached on an infield single to second and Ryne Malone's throw got away from Russ Canzler which allowed Horton to score to make it 3-0 Kane County. With Horton at second base, Valdez blooped a single into center field to score Horton and extend the Kane County lead to 4-0.

Kane County used a pair of defensive miscues by Peoria in the fourth inning to open up the game. Dowling singled with one out and moved to second after Ty Wright did not field the ball cleanly in center. After Haas Pratt was hit by a Bartek pitch, Valdez doubled over the head of Wright to score Dowling to make it 5-0. With the infield drawn in, Johnson lined a shot to first that Canzler made a diving stop on but could not get Pratt beat the play at the plate to make it 6-0. The Cougars threatened with another big inning in the fifth but the defense helped Bartek limit the damage. Cobb singled to start the inning followed by a walk to Mitchell to put runners at first and second with no outs. Horton grounded into a 4-6-3 double play to move Cobb to third but now with two outs. Dowling delivered an RBI base hit to right to score Cobb and make it a 7-0 game and end Bartek's night. Chris Siegfried came in and walked the first two batters he faced to load the bases but got Johnson to ground out to end the inning and strand the bases loaded for the second time in the game.

Gorman's Pub Player of the Games Brian Leclerc (LF)- Leclerc now has an 11 game hit streak after going 2-for-4 with three RBI and a run scored. He drove in two runs in the five run seventh inning and another run as the Chiefs tied the game in the eighth.

Playoff Watch: The top two teams in the division excluding Beloit and Clinton will make the playoffs. With 6 games remaining, the Chiefs are in the Wild Card race, 5.5 games behind Quad Cities who beat Burlington in 10 innings. The Chiefs are one game behind Cedar Rapids in the Wild Card race. Kane County is now 1 behind Cedar Rapids and Burlington is 6 ½ games out. The Chiefs have one games (at home) left against Kane County, three games (at home) against Cedar Rapids and two at Quad Cities. The Wild Card team will play Beloit in the first round while the Second Half Champion will play Clinton.

Notes... The Chiefs and Cougars are tied in the season series 5-5 with one game left...Kane County has scored 10 runs or more against the Chiefs three times this season...The nine run deficit made up marks the largest of the season for the Chiefs who came back from eight down on June 15th but also lost that game...The 3 hour 37 minute game time is the longest nine inning game of the season for the Chiefs...Chiefs pitchers walked 10 Cougars hitters, hit three and threw three wild pitches...The two teams combined for seven wild pitches and one passed ball...There were nine unearned runs in the game...The Chiefs and Cougars wrap up the series and the home stand on Wednesday evening at 6:30... Any fans holding unused tickets from the 2007 season can exchange them for a free seating bowl or lawn seat to Wednesday's game...Peoria will send RH Robert Hernandez (6-9, 4.79) to the hill against Kane County LH James Heuser (11-7, 4.26). The game can be heard live beginning with the pre-game show at 6:15 PM online at www.peoriachiefscom or on WOAM 1350.

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Midwest League Stories from August 28, 2007


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