FL Joliet Slammers

Fox's Clutch Hit Propels Slammers to Victory

June 6, 2012 - Frontier League (FL)
Joliet Slammers News Release


(Crestwood, IL) - David Fox lined a two-out, two-RBI single in the top of the ninth and the Joliet Slammers (10-7) knocked off the Windy City ThunderBolts by a final score of 5-3 Wednesday night.

It was a back-and-forth battle between the two West Division rivals all night long. The ThunderBolts struck first in the bottom of the second. Joliet loaded the bases with nobody out in the top half of the frame but did not score. Windy City loaded the bases against Joliet's Steven Maxwell in their half of the inning and only managed one run. After a RBI fielder's choice from Brandon Pearl, Maxwell got Chris Wade to hit into a double play to get out of the inning with no further damage.

Joliet answered in the third inning as Erik Lis smacked his first home run of the season, a towering shot down the right field line, to even the score at one.

The ThunderBolts got to Maxwell for another run in the bottom half of the third as Brandon Decker singled in Chad Creagar to give Windy City a 2-1 edge.

That lead did not last long as Ben Hewett drew a walk to start a rally in the fifth. Abel Nieves extended his hitting streak to 11 games when he doubled to right-center, putting runners at second and third with nobody out.

That's when Hector Pellot hit a high fly ball down the left field line. Brandon Decker made a running catch and crashed into the wall in foul territory. Hewett tagged and scored from third. But the remarkable thing was that Nieves tagged and scored from second base on the same play to give the Slammers a 3-2 lead.

Windy City tied things up in the sixth on a Bryan Burke two-out RBI double down the right field line.

Maxwell went six innings, giving up three runs on six hits and striking out five batters.

Daniel Carela (2-0) entered the game in the seventh and tossed two scoreless innings.

This set up Fox's heroics in the ninth. With one away Nieves singled on the infield. Then Hector Pellot singed to center and with two away Zach Mandelblatt was hit by the pitch to load the bases. Fox drilled a Matt Costello pitch to right-center field that landed on the grass and scored two runs to give Joliet the 5-3 lead.

Amalio Diaz picked up his fifth save of the season for the Slammers as he worked a scoreless ninth.

With the win, the Slammers stay tied with Schaumburg for third place in the West and move to within one game of Windy City for second place. The teams square off again Thursday night as Jeremy Tietze (0-1, 6.89 ERA) takes the hill for the Slammers. First pitch is at 7:05 p.m. Central Time and all the action can be hard on AM 1340 WJOL and at www.wjol.com.

Check out the Joliet Slammers Statistics



Frontier League Stories from June 6, 2012


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central