FL River City Rascals

Colon Homers Twice and Plates Eight in 19-4 Rascals Win

Published on June 9, 2016 under Frontier League (FL)
River City Rascals News Release


Alexi Colon Comes in to Score for the River City Rascals
Alexi Colon Comes in to Score for the River City Rascals
(River City Rascals)

Alexi Colon led the way for the Rascals and eight different players had multiple hits in route to the largest offensive game of the season, a 19-4 victory over the Florence Freedom Wednesday night at CarShield Field.

In total, the Rascals had 23 hits, sent 45 batters to the plate and have now outscored the Freedom 37-9 in the series. The Rascals scored 18 last night and 19 tonight and have defeated the opponent five times this season.

In his second game in a Rascals uniform, Alexi Colon led off the first inning with a double and would go on to have one of the greatest Rascal performances in recent memory. He ripped another double in the third inning and came to the plate again with two runners on as the Rascals batted around. He became the first Rascal since Taylor Ard in August 2015 to record two hits in an inning and it came via a three-run home run that put the Rascals up 14-5.

The former Schaumburg Boomer added to his stellar night with a two RBI single in the sixth and his second three run homer in the eighth to give him five hits and eight RBI. Coming into the game, the team leader in RBI was eleven in 20 games played and Colon had as much RBI in one game as five current players have all season. He also scored four runs and has scored eight in the past two games.

"I had a blast out there. I love this team already because they are full of guys that want to have fun. We are all playing for the guy next to us and when you play like that, it is easy to have fun and we were able to put up a ton of runs," Colon said. "I was just trying to hit the ball hard every at-bat and seeing where it ended up was fun. I was able to put the ball on the barrel today and was a lot more aggressive than I was yesterday."

Colon wasn't the only Rascal to have three or more hits tonight. Josh Ludy had three with a RBI and outfielder Kyle Gaedele had his best game of the season with four hits and drove in two of his own.

The other multiple hit games came from Johnny Morales (2 RBI), Griff Gordon, Clint Freeman (2 RBI), Jason Merjano (1 RBI) and Robby Enslen.

It all began after the Freedom took the lead in the first inning off a double steal which plated leadoff hitter Travis Weaver. The Rascals answered that with five runs on five hits and batted around in the inning taking a 5-1 lead. That inning was highlighted by RBI singles from Morales, Ludy and Gaedele.

However, the Freedom got two of those runs back off of Jason Ziegler in their next opportunity and the southpaw was pulled in a 5-3 contest after going 1 1/3 innings. Reese Gregory came on in relief and had his best performance of his professional career. Gregory took the win and would go on to throw 5 2/3 innings, allowing no earned runs on two hits and struck out a pair.

"I felt comfortable out there tonight, this is my third professional appearance and I was able to settle in a lot faster than last time I pitched here," Gregory said. "I did the best I could to keep the lead at where it was and we (Lucas Laster and Jared Wilson) did that the rest of the game."

The Rascals bounced off Gregory's scoreless innings and the bats came alive again in the bottom of the fourth. The Rascals sent 12 batters to the plate and scored nine runs, the largest amount in an inning this season. If the Rascals would have scored one more, it would have been the first time since June 25th, 2014 that they scored 10 or more runs in an inning.

"We are having a lot of fun, we never take an at-bat off and have a lot of good hitters on this team," Gaedele said. "We made their pitchers work, had some pretty big innings and for me personally I just went up to the plate every time looking to attack."

That fourth inning began with a fly out and then the Rascals notched four consecutive hits, including a RBI single from Johnny Morales. The Freedom lefty Patrick McGrath recorded another fly out and then the Rascals put together five hits in a row which included three singles, a two RBI double from Clint Freeman and the first three run shot by Alexi Colon which gave the Rascals the 14-5 lead.

The Rascals scored five more runs throughout the game and all the RBI's came from Colon with the two RBI single and another home run.

Patrick McGrath took the loss, allowing 13 total runs (not all earned) on 14 hits and walked three. Manager Dennis Pelfrey used four relievers to finish out the game and two of the four gave up runs. Tony Vocca gave up three (2 earned) and Ethan Gibbons gave up three.

With the win, the Rascals have a chance to sweep the Freedom for the second time this season and will have Josh Wright on the mound Thursday night. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35.

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Alexi Colon Comes in to Score for the River City Rascals
Alexi Colon Comes in to Score for the River City Rascals
   



Frontier League Stories from June 9, 2016


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