CornBelters Top 1st Place Rascals
June 6, 2018 - Frontier League (FL)
Normal CornBelters News Release
O'FALLON, Mo - It seemed like the (9-13) Normal CornBelters needed Monday off to recollect themselves and make some transactions as they topped the first place (14-7) River City Rascals 5-3 to open up the final road series on Tuesday night.
"This win means a lot. If you look at the standings were in the last place, but we are right there. We talked about this the other day, everyone is clumped together and it's not like we are 3-20 and chasing a lot of games," said Billy Horn. "It (win) means a lot and especially to get off on the right foot. Jacinto (Garcia) went out and gave us a quality start again. He has been fantastic for us all year and we manufactured some runs tonight with some good two-out hitting tonight."
Jacinto Garcia was given the bump to start the first game of the final nine-game road trip against the first-place River City Rascals. The former Mexican National team pitcher has been lights out in his first season as a CornBelter. Entering Tuesday with a 2-0 record along with a 1.05 ERA and only surrendering two earned runs and limiting opposing bats to a .217 average.
Garica went six solid innings that tied for his longest outing of the season. He limited the division leaders to just three hits and three earned runs with only allowing one free pass.
After being signed to the club on Monday, Tony Holton, Joel Davis, and Sam Vega all made their Normal debut in the series opener and all played a key role in the victory.
Derrick Loveless continued his league-leading on-base streak (21) in the second with a walk.
The game remained scoreless after two innings until River City jumped to a 1-0 lead on a leadoff double that came around to score on a fielder's choice.
Normal answered in the next frame with two outs. Tanner Lubach and Loveless knocked back-to-back singles. Andrew Godbold fouled one off that the River City catcher dropped, and he would take advantage on the next pitch. He hit a bullet off the center wall for his sixth double to take the lead 2-1.
The newly acquired duo of Davis and Vega helped the Belters take the lead in the fifth. Davis knocked his first hit to leadoff. Vega who was the designated hitter bunted him over to second. Fletcher followed with a single to right field to put runners on the corners. Coming into Tuesday, Fletcher was hitting .368 at leadoff. Chi-Chi then brought Davis in on a groundout in the fifth.Â
River City matched Normal and scored in both bottom halves to tie the game each time.
Nick Bozman was the first reliever out of the bullpen and he couldn't find his stuff. The southpaw walked two straight before Anthony Herrera replaced him. Two pitches later he got a groundout that moved runners to second and third. Billy Horn called for an intentional walk to the next batter. In his team and league-leading 11th appearance, Herrera had a .000 ERA with the bases loaded this season and he helped himself out this time. A jammed shot bounced to Herrera's right and the Houston native made a spectator bare hand throw to Lubach to get the force out at home. Normal saw another great defensive play when Chirino robbed a hit up the middle and got the force at second to end the threat.Â
"The Bullpen was huge, Boz (Nick Bozman) didn't have his best stuff, but we decided to go with Herrera in the big situation and he got us out of the jam."
After being shutout in the six and seventh, the CornBelters put together another late-inning rally. Starting with a single by Fletcher for his third hit of the game. Chirino singled to right for his 619th hit overall and now is only 16 hits from tying the Frontier League record for hits (635). The new Belter Holton, who drove 11 hours on Monday to sign with the team, moved the veterans over on a sac bunt. Lubach singled to bring his 20th and 21st RBI to put Normal up 5-3.
"We don't like to bunt with 3-5-5, but a perfect situation happened and Pasci (Pascual Santiago) made a great call and I agree with everything that he does over there at third base."
Horn turned to closer Kuehl McEachern and he retired the heart of the order for River City with ease and picked up his team-leading third save.
The CornBelters send their ace, Scott Sebald and look to take game two tomorrow with first pitch at 6:35 p.m.
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