Crushers Hold CornBelters at Arm's Length
July 25, 2014 - Frontier League (FL)
Normal CornBelters News Release
NORMAL, Ill. - The Normal CornBelters, presented by Illinois Corn Farmers, gave up rallies in the third and fourth innings and lost an error-filled game, 8-6 on Friday night at the Corn Crib.
For the second straight night, the Crushers took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Juan Sanchez led off with a triple to the right center field fence and scored on a sacrifice fly to right center by Craig Hertler.
The CornBelters surged ahead 2-1 with three straight hits to start the first by Jhiomar Veras, Pat McKenna and Mike Schwartz with Veras scoring on the Schwartz single and Richard Lucas plating Schwartz with a base hit.
The Crushers took a 3-2 lead in the second inning with a pair of unearned runs as Vincent Mejia reached on an error and scored on another misplay on a single by Emmanuel Quiles, who took third on the error and scored on a double play.
The Belters used an unearned run by loading the bases with one out and scoring on a throwing error to force a 3-3 tie. The Crushers again answered in the next frame with three hits and a walk to take a 5-3 advantage on an RBI single by Quiles and a sacrifice fly by Adam Ford.
Lake Erie continued their onslaught with two more runs in the fourth inning on a sacrifice fly by Andrew Davis and an RBI single by Anderson Hidalgo to build their lead to 7-3.
Normal chipped into the lead in the sixth when Ozney Guillen led off by reaching on an error and scoring on a base hit to right by Tyler Shover to cut the margin to 7-4.
The Crushers pushed the lead to 8-4 in the seventh with their third unearned run of the night when Ryan Hutchison went to third base on a dropped fly ball and scored on a base hit to left by Sanchez.
The Belters again cut into the margin in the eighth inning when Dylan Kelly led off with a double and went to third on a Shover single, with McKenna and Schwartz following up with RBI singles to cut the Crushers lead to 8-6. The Belters put a runner aboard in the ninth but came up empty.
Each team registered 15 hits and left 12 runners on base. The Crushers committed four errors while the CornBelters were charged with five errors.
Mickey Jannis (3-4) worked 5.1 innings for the win, giving up 10 hits but only one earned run. Corey MacDonald (3-2) lasted three innings with five runs (three earned) and seven hits with two walks and no strikeouts while taking the loss. Trevor Longfellow pitched the final 1.1 innings for his second save.
The series concludes Saturday at the Corn Crib with a 7 p.m. first pitch as CornBelters right-hander Mike Devine (0-1, 7.24 ERA) matches up against Crushers lefty Todd Kibby (5-2, 2.14). Pre-game begins at 6:50 at www.normalbaseball.com . The Belters visit O'Fallon, Mo. to face the River City Rascals on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday before returning home Wednesday to begin a six-game homestand starting with the Southern Illinois Miners.
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Frontier League Stories from July 25, 2014
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