CornBelters Split Doubleheader with Miners
June 20, 2018 - Frontier League (FL)
Normal CornBelters News Release
Normal CornBelters catcher Tanner Lubach
(Normal CornBelters, Credit: Ryan Eucker)
NORMAL, Ill. - The rain held off for the series opener that began with a doubleheader on Wednesday at the Corn Crib, as the (14-19) Normal CornBelters rallied to take game one 7-4, but gave it away 5-4 in the second game to the (18-15) Southern Illinois Miners.
"We had a lot of momentum going into the game one today and after the first one today. Our bats came alive, which is great and in the second game we found another way to give away the ball game and we have been doing that way too much this season," said Manager Billy Horn
GAME 1:
It seems like whenever the Normal CornBelters and Southern Illinois play, Mother Nature is always in attendance. This season she has forced the cancellation of five games, resulting in three doubleheaders.
Andrew Godbold got the offense going on the first pitch he saw for his third home run of the season to put Normal up 2-0 in the first. Southern Illinois responded and put up three straight runs in the next three innings to take a 3-2 lead.
After being shutout for three innings, Normal took back the lead in the fifth. Santiago Chirino started the five-run outburst with a two-out single into left to bring in Chris Iriart and Justin Fletcher. Derrick Loveless kept his consecutive on-base streak of 32 games alive with a single into right. Godbold drove in his fourth RBI of the game with a single up the middle. Joel Davis wrapped up the inning on an RBI single to put Normal up 7-3.
Trevor Simms (1-0) held the Miners scoreless in the fifth in his tenth appearance. The Lone Ranger picked up three strikeouts and eventually his first win on the year. Jonathan de Marte followed with a perfect sixth inning.
Kevin Matthews didn't have his best stuff in the afternoon game to start the series opener. The Miners knocked seven hits and scored three runs on the lefty in four innings. Along with two strikeouts, for the second start in a row, Matthews picked off a base runner.
In his team-leading seventeenth appearance, Anthony Herrera surrendered one run, but finished the ninth to take game one, 7-4 and snap the five-game losing streak at the Corn Crib.
GAME 2:
Both teams remained scoreless for the first three frames until Southern Illinois took advantage of a Normal error that led to a three fun lead in the fourth.
The CornBelters then flipped the script in the fifth and took advantage of a Miner's defensive miscue. Chirino then singled to bring Sam Vega and Fletcher to trail 3-2.
Illinois State product, Jack Landwehr pitched a great game despite the defensive mistake behind him. He lasted five innings of work, limiting the Miners to just five hits and struck out two for his fourth start in the Normal uniform.
In the sixth, Godbold and Tony Holton reached on singles and Iriart walked to load the bases. Cody Erickson came up big again with bases loaded and kept the single train pushing to tie the game at three. After the Miners brought in a new pitcher to face Vega, Erickson scampered home on a wild pitch to give Normal their first lead of the game 4-3.
The Boz (Nick Bozman) threw another scoreless outing in the sixth. The southpaw has appeared in 16 games and has a team-best 2.18 ERA.
Horn sent closer Kuehl McEachern to close out game two and sweep the doubleheader. After a leadoff walk, Erickson made an error on a bunt, which brought around the tying run to score. The righty kept it to just one run as he got out of a jam with a 6-4-3 double play.
Normal looked to earn their first walk-off in the next frame (7th). Chirino collected his second hit of the game, for hit number 632 and is only three hits away from tying the all-time hit record in the Frontier League. Loveless continued his consecutive on-base streak (33) alive in his final at-bat of the day with a walk. However, the Belters were unable to drive the winning run in and went to extras.
In the eighth, the Miners hit the winning run on a solo shot to left field off of George Faue (0-1) to take game two 5-4 and split the doubleheader.
The series ends tomorrow at the Corn Crib with another doubleheader and game one set to begin at 5:05 p.m. with game two following in the next 30 minutes.
Images from this story
 Normal CornBelters catcher Tanner Lubach (Ryan Eucker) |
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