Sports stats



MWL1 Peoria Chiefs

Chiefs Win Crazy One Friday

June 19, 2009 - Midwest League (MWL1)
Peoria Chiefs News Release


Peoria, IL - Possibly inspired by the seven-run comeback of their parent club on Friday afternoon, the Peoria Chiefs did the Chicago Cubs one better and erased an eight-run deficit for a wild 12-10 win Friday night over the Burlington Bees at O'Brien Field. The win, their seventh straight, keeps the Chiefs playoff hopes alive as they are two games back with two to play while Wild Card leading Kane County still has to play three games.

Trailing 10-9 heading into the bottom of the eighth the Chiefs rallied against Bees reliever Derrick Saito. With one down Kyler Burke collected his third hit of the night with a single up the middle. Rebel Ridling doubled down the left-field line to put the tying run on third and the go-ahead run on second. Drew Rundle pinch ran for Ridling as Ryan Flaherty stepped into the batter's box. After taking ball one, Flaherty crushed a three-run homer into the Pepsi Picnic Plaza to give the Chiefs their first lead of the night at 12-10. Flaherty now has two homers on the homestand and nine on the season to go along with 35 RBI. Closer Chris Huseby struck out all three Bees he faced in the ninth for his sixth save of the season.

For the second straight day, Burlington put up a three-spot early to get on the board first. David Wood singled leading off the inning and moved to second on Jose Bonilla's groundout. Chase Fontaine stepped up and hit a bouncer towards Flaherty at short. The Chiefs middle infielder gloved it and tried to retire the lead runner Wood heading into third. Flaherty's throw was accurate towards third, but it hit off the glove of third baseman Josh Vitters and kicked away allowing Wood to score. Juan Rivera followed that play with a RBI triple to right-center and came in to score on a Jarrod Dyson single to make it 3-0.

The Bees hammered out five more runs in the top of the third thanks to two Chiefs errors. Marcus Hatley walked Fernando Garcia and Eric Hosmer singled to start off the frame. Nick Van Stratten laid down a sacrifice bunt near the third base line, but reached based as Hatley's throw sailed high and wide of first base allowing Garcia to score for a 4-0 lead. Later in the inning with the bases loaded and one away Fontaine doubled to right which brought home Hosmer and Van Stratten. With runners on second and third, Rivera lined out to Ridling who tried to double off Bonilla at third but his throw was errant and Bonilla came in to score. Burlington added one more in a five-run third on a Patrick Norris run-scoring double to make it 8-0, his first extra base-hit of the season. Five of the eight runs over the first three innings were unearned against Hatley who committed two errors himself.

The Chiefs put up a crooked number in the fourth. Ridling walked to lead off the frame and Flaherty reached on a fielders' choice with Ridling safe at second base as the throw to force him out at second base ended up in left field. Nelson Perez delivered his second triple in as many days plating both Ridling and Flaherty to make it an 8-2 score. Burlington got one of those runs back in the next half inning on a RBI fielder's choice off the bat of Rivera to give the Bees a 9-2 advantage.

Peoria rallied for a couple more runs in the fifth. With one out and a run on first, Vitters hit a high chopper to Fontaine at third and his throw to first sailed into right field allowing the runners to stand safely at second and third. Burke cut the Chiefs deficit to five when he hit a sharp grounder that straddled the first base stripe for a double to score both runners and make it a 9-4 score.

The Chiefs came all the way back to tie the game in a crazy bottom of the sixth. Trailing by five, Junior Lake reached on an error by Fontaine and moved to third when Brenly was safe on an error by reliever Riquy Pena. Harrison made it 9-5 as Lake scored on a fielders' choice with Brenly out at second. Harrison moved all the way around the bases on two wild pitches and a balk by Pena. David Macias walked and advanced to third on a single by Vitters and an error by centerfielder Jarrod Dyson. Saito relieved Pena and a two-run triple to the gate in right-center by Burke pulled the Chiefs to within one run at 9-8. Ridling hit a grounder to third and Burke scored to tie the game when he bowled over Bonilla at the plate. Ridling moved to second on the play as Fontaine was charged with a throwing error, the Bees fourth of the frame. Flaherty advanced Ridling to third with a broken-bat groundout, but Saito struck out Perez to end the inning with the game tied 9-9.

Burlington regained the lead in the eighth against Erik Hamren. Patrick Norris singled to lead off the inning and was sacrificed to second by Dyson. After an intentional walk and pop out, Burlington reclaimed a one-run lead on a bloop double to right-center by Nick Van Stratten to take a 10-9 lead.

Hatley took a no-decision despite leaving with the Bees up 8-0. He allowed eight runs, three earned, on six hits over three innings. The righty walked two and struck out one. Chris Siegfried allowed one unearned run on three hits over four innings while walking one and striking out one. Hamren allowed one run on two hits and a walk over one inning of work to pick up the win. Huseby picked up his sixth save with a 1-2-3 ninth and three strikeouts.

Check out the Peoria Chiefs Statistics



Midwest League Stories from June 19, 2009


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 Peoria Chiefs Stories



Sports Statistics from the Stats Crew
OurSports Central