MWL1 Peoria Chiefs

Chiefs Win Third Straight Sunday, 10-3

Published on April 18, 2010 under Midwest League (MWL1)
Peoria Chiefs News Release


Peoria, IL - The Peoria Chiefs extended their season-best winning streak to three in front of a crowd of 3,119 at O'Brien Field with a 10-3 victory over the visiting Burlington Bees. The win was the second for the Chiefs on the home stand and improved their record to 6-5 on the season.

Burlington struck first on Sunday, as leadoff batter Hilton Richardson launched a triple into the right-center gap. The very next batter, Deivy Batista, hit a fly ball to right field that was deep enough to score Richardson on the tag. The Bees were unable to score any more in the frame as Chiefs pitcher Nick Struck induced a ground ball out from Wil Myers and struck out Rene Oriental to end the inning.

The Chiefs came charging back and took the lead in the fourth. Logan Watkins led off and reached on a single. With Greg Rohan batting Watkins was caught stealing on a pick-off attempt by Burlington pitcher John Lamb, but reached second safely on a throwing error by Bees first baseman Joey Lewis. Watkins advanced to third on a Rohan groundout to second base. Justin Bour drew a walk, putting runners on the corners for Jovan Rosa, who struck out. That brought up Richard Jones who delivered with a two-RBI double to put the Chiefs on top 2-1. George Matheus followed Jones' at-bat with his first hit of the season, an RBI single to make the Peoria lead 3-1.

Burlington added a run in the top of the sixth inning when Hilton Richardson blasted a home run into the right field stands off of Steven Grife that made the score 3-2. The homer was his second of the seasons and ninth allowed by the Chiefs this season.

Peoria answered right back in the bottom of the frame as Bour led off with a walk. Rosa lined a single into center field that advanced Bour to second before Jones grounded into a double play that put Bour on third base. Matheus slapped a single through the right side of the infield for his second hit and second RBI of the day.

Joey Lewis of Burlington kept the scoring going in the seventh as he hit a solo home run down the foul line in left, his second in as many days. The blast cut the Chiefs lead to 4-3.

In the bottom of the seventh the Chiefs put a little bit of separation between themselves and Burlington. Jose Valdez reached on an infield single and Watkins followed with a single of his own. With Rohan batting Valdez and Watkins executed a double steal, putting two runners in scoring position. Rohan would not let the opportunity go to waste as he hit a two-RBI single for a 6-3 Chiefs lead.

The lead continued to grow for the Chiefs in the eighth. Jesus Morelli reached on a fielders' choice and Hak-Ju Lee hit a triple to give the Chiefs a 7-3 lead. Valdez singled up the middle to score Lee. Watkins hit a hard ground ball to third that deflected off the leg of Burlington's Fernando Cruz and was grabbed by Batista, who's throw skipped past first, putting runners on second and third. Rohan came up and added to his RBI total with a single to center that scored two more runs, giving the Chiefs a 10-3 advantage.

Nick Struck (1-1) registered his first win of the season by pitching five innings of one-run ball, surrendering two hits and striking out four. Steven Grife gave up two runs on two hits in two innings of work and struck out two while registering his third hold of the season. Ronny Morla pitched the final two innings allowing one hit and striking out one batter to register his first save of the season.

Casey's General Store Player of the Game - Greg Rohan (3B) - Rohan went 3-5 and drove in a team-high four runs with a double and two singles. He leads the Chiefs in RBI on the season with 12 and delivered a pair of two-run singles while also stealing a base.

Notes...Lee has collected two hits in five straight games...Valdez leads the MWL with nine steals...Chiefs pitchers have allowed 10 home runs, tied with Quad Cities for the most in the MWL...Peoria batted around in the eighth, the second time they have sent at least nine batters to the plate in this series...The Chiefs are 2-0 on Sundays...Struck earned his first professional win while Morla earned his first professional save...The Chiefs have scored 17 runs in their first two home games after averaging 3.5 runs per game on the roadtrip...The three-game series concludes Monday night with a 6:30 p.m. game that features Cubs All-Star pitcher LH Ted Lilly (0-0, 0.00) in a rehab start against Burlington RH Kelvin Hererra (1-0, 3.00)...Tickets for Monday's game are Half-Price...Monday is Movie Madness Monday featuring a tribute to the films of Steve Martin...The game can be heard starting with the pre-game show at 6:15 PM on 96.5 ESPN Radio and www.peoriachiefs.com.

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Midwest League Stories from April 18, 2010


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