FL River City Rascals

Early Offense and Solid Pitching Leads to Rascals Win

Published on July 22, 2016 under Frontier League (FL)
River City Rascals News Release


Clint Freeman and Kyle Gaedele provided two RBI's a piece and the Rascals pitching staff paved the way for a series opening win against the Traverse City Beach Bums, 5-3, Friday night at CarShield Field.

In a rematch of the 2015 Frontier League Championship Series, River City (27-29) sent out Josh Wright for his first start since July 1st and he looked sharp retiring the first six batters of the contest on a pair of strikeouts and four ground outs.

On the mound for Traverse City was right-hander Michael Shreves and the Rascals found success off him early beginning with a leadoff double from Kyle Gaedele in the second inning. With one out, Clint Freeman put the Rascals on top 2-0 with his fifth home run of the year and the Rascals would hold the lead the rest of the night.

"He's not swinging at bad pitches anymore and has a great approach at the plate," Manager Steve Brook said. "His success attributes to seeing the ball deep in the zone, especially later in the counts and he is limiting strikeouts which is able to help him pile up the hits."

The Beach Bums pulled within one via a solo home run from Giancarlo Brugnoni, his fifth of the year and that would be the closest the Beach Bums came to pulling even.

Beach Bums starter Michael Shreves was unable to keep it close and allowed two runs in the home half of the third inning to have an early exit.

Braxton Martinez led off with a single, Alexi Colon drew a walk and then after back-to-back pop outs in the infield, Gaedele delivered a two RBI single to put the Rascals ahead by three runs, 4-1.

Beach Bums Manager Dan Rohm went to his bullpen and called upon Jacob Lanning to begin the fourth inning. The righty got two quick outs and then on the first pitch to the Rascals slugger Alexi Colon, the team leader in home runs drilled one over the right field wall giving him is eleventh of the year and the Rascals held their largest lead of the night at 5-1.

The Beach Bums had a great chance to cut into the lead after back-to-back singles off Josh Wright in the fifth inning and they did one batter later with a RBI single from all-star shortstop Will Kengor.

Kengor's hit was enough to chase Wright out of the game and Manager Steve Brook went to veteran Nick Kennedy with no outs and the tying run at the plate in a 5-2 contest.

Kennedy would limit the damage to just one run, a sacrifice fly from Steven Patterson and got an inning ending strikeout to keep the game at 5-3 and give Wright the chance to pick up win number three.

The sacrifice fly was the final run of the night as Kennedy combined with Michael Gunn, Shane Street and closer Zac Treece to hold the opponent hitless and scoreless the remainder of the contest.

"That's the way it's supposed to work when we put it down on paper before the game," Steve Brook said. "Our starter is supposed to give us at least five quality innings and our bullpen comes in and throws strikes."

Wright took his third win of the year allowing the three runs on seven hits and had five strikeouts while Zac Treece finished the game with his eleventh save of the year.

Offensively after the fourth inning, the Rascals added just two more hits off of a pair of Beach Bums releivers. Alexi Colon notched a leadoff single in the seventh and Kyle Gaedele in the eighth however neither came around to score.

River City finished with eight hits total and now hold a 21-2 record when out-hitting opponents. With the win, the Rascals have a chance to win their second series of the year against Traverse City Saturday night with Zeb Sneed on the mound.

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Frontier League Stories from July 22, 2016


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