MWL1 Peoria Chiefs

Chiefs take second straight from first place LumberKings

Published on June 6, 2008 under Midwest League (MWL1)
Peoria Chiefs News Release


Peoria, IL - The Peoria Chiefs took the second game of a four-game set with the first-place Clinton LumberKings 10-5 on Friday night at O'Brien Field. The win improves the Chiefs to 26-35 overall on the season and 15-15 at O'Brien Field. Clinton jumped on the board in the first inning against Chiefs starter Hung-Wen Chen. Renny Osuna doubled and came into score on a base hit by Mitch Moreland to stake Clinton to an early 1-0 advantage. The Chiefs wasted no time answering in their half of the first inning against Clinton starter Blake Beavan. Nate Samson doubled to right-center to lead off the inning, and Josh Donaldson followed with a two-run blast to left-center to quickly give the Chiefs a 2-1 lead. Still with no outs, last night's hero Brandon Guyer doubled down the right field line and promptly stole third base. Jovan Rosa grounded out to third for the first out in the inning, but Guyer scored to extend the Chiefs lead to 3-1. Clinton regained the lead against Chen in the third inning after Engel Beltre started the inning with a double past a diving Jovan Rosa at first base. Osuna followed with a double of his own to score Beltre and cut the Chiefs lead to 3-2. Tim Smith connected on a two-run homer to left-center to put the LumberKings on top 4-3. The Chiefs regained the lead in the third inning against Beavan. Guyer walked to start the inning and stole his second base of the night to move into scoring position. Marquez Smith lined a single back up the middle to score Guyer and tie the game 4-4. Cliff Andersen singled to move Smith to third and put runners on the corners with only one out. Beavan tried to pick Andersen off at first but threw the ball away, allowing Smith to score and make it 5-4. The right-fielder David Paisano missed the cutoff man on the play, allowing Andersen to score from first and give the Chiefs a 6-4 lead. Peoria added to their lead in the fifth inning against LumberKings reliever Keisuke Ueno. Smith singled to start the inning and came into score on a double by Luis Bautista to the gap in right center, pushing the Chiefs lead to 7-4. The Chiefs tacked on more insurance after two men were out. After Bautista advanced to third on a wild pitch, Johnson walked and stole his second bag of the night to move into scoring position. Nate Samson lined a two-run single to score both Bautista and Johnson and put the Chiefs in front 9-4. Clinton got a run back in the sixth inning against Zach Ashwood. Matt Lawson started the inning with a double to the gap in left center. After two men were out, Osuna hit the second double of the inning to score Lawson and make it a 9-5 game. After Ashwood walked Tim Smith to load the bases, he departed in favor of Jordan Latham. With the tying run at the plate in the form of Ian Gac, Latham struck him out looking to end the inning and strand the bases loaded. The Chiefs got to LumberKings reliever Ryan Turner in the eighth inning. Donaldson doubled off the right field wall to start the inning and Rosa drew a walk. Smith picked up his fourth hit of the night and second RBI with a single to score Donaldson and make it 10-5. Chen battled through four innings despite allowing four runs on eight hits. He struck out two batters and walked one but did not factor in the decision. Ashwood worked 1 2/3 and allowed a run on three hits en route to his first win of the season. He walked a one and did not record a strikeout. Latham worked 2 1/3 hitless innings while tying his season-high in strikeouts with five. Dustin Sasser struck out a pair in the ninth to finish off the victory for the Chiefs.

Player of the Game - Marquez Smith (3B) - Marquez collected his first four hit game of his career and the first by a Chiefs player this season. Smith finished the night 4-for-5 with two runs batted in and two runs scored. He raised his batting average from .286 to .297 on the night.

Notes... Peoria has homered 19 times at home this season and four times in the first two games of this series...Peoria's 15 hits tied the most this season by the team...The Chiefs stole six bases which is their most this season and most since 4/16/03 also against Clinton...Smith picked up his first career four hit game and first by a Chief this season...Johnson stole three bases which is a single-game high for a Chiefs player...Bautista has hit in a personal best six straight games...Chen failed to work at least five innings for the first time in five starts...Smith now has a at least one multi-hit game in three straight series...The Chiefs turned one double play to increase their league-leading total to 61... The 3 hour and 13 minute time of game was the longest nine inning game at home this season...The series continues on Saturday evening at 6:30...Saturday is another spectacular fireworks show presented by CEFCU...Following the final out there will be another Pitch-In for Charity to benefit Make-A-Wish...Also on Saturday afternoon there will be a Classic Car Cruise taking place on Oak Street outside the stadium...Over 150 vintage cars will be display from 2:00-5:00 PM...Peoria will send RH Kevin Kreier (2-1, 5.82) to the hill against LH Michael Kirkman (0-0, 0.00)...The game can be heard live beginning with the pre-game show at 6:15 PM live online at www.peoriachiefs.com or on WOAM 1350 AM.

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