FL River City Rascals

Large Offensive Day Lifts Rascals to Fourth Straight

Published on August 7, 2016 under Frontier League (FL)
River City Rascals News Release


The River City Rascals held off a late rally of the Washington Wild Things to earn their fourth series sweep of the year, Sunday afternoon at CarShield Field. Despite the Rascals (34-37) taking a 7-0 lead in the first inning and a 10-3 lead in the sixth inning, the Wild Things continued to chip away and got the go-ahead run on base in the seventh inning before eventually falling 11-9.

The Rascals got their bats going right away in their first opportunity and five consecutive Rascals reached before the Wild Things starter Luke Wilkins recorded an out.

Alexi Colon and Mike Jurgella got the offense started with a pair of singles and then on a sacrifice bunt attempt from Josh Silver, Wilkins threw the ball away trying to get the lead runner out at third, which caused Alexi Colon to score and the Rascals took a 1-0 lead. Kyle Gaedele followed that up with a RBI single and Josh Ludy gave his club a 3-0 advantage with a RBI single of his own.

One batter later, Clint Freeman grounded into the first out of the opening frame before Robby Enslen walked to load the bases and Jason Merjano added an exclamation point to the inning with a bases clearing triple to take a 6-0 lead. The final run came via a sacrifice fly from Braxton Martinez to lead 7-0 at the end of the first inning.

"It was a pretty big hit that kind of set the tone and I carried off all of the momentum that was already built up in the inning." Merjano said.

"I told Merjano before the game he was going to have a standout day," clubhouse manager Connor Holliday said. "Guess I was right."

Merjano would go on to notch another hit and steal second later in the game.

On the mound for the Rascals was Joe Pavlovich and he would go on to allow just one run through the first four innings, a solo home run from Grant Fink.

The lead never grew bigger as long as Pavlovich was on the mound as Wilkins kept the Rascals off the scoreboard the rest of his outing, which lasted five innings.

The Wild Things began to chip away at the lead once again in the top of the fifth with a pair of RBI hits from Chris Grayson and Ricky Rodriguez, in what would be Pavlovich's final inning.

The second year Rascal went on to record the first two outs of the sixth and was pulled with a runner on first and two outs. Veteran Nick Kennedy replaced him and got an inning ending ground out.

Leaving in line for the win, Pavlovich tossed five 2/3 innings allowing three runs on six hits and struck out four.

Similar to River City, the Wild Things also brought in a new arm for the sixth inning and the Rascals responded with three runs with RBI's from Josh Silver and Josh Ludy to take a 10-3 lead.

However, that would be the largest lead of the night and the Wild Things put a scare into the Rascals before the stretch and the home town team went through four relievers before the inning was completed.

The Wild Things tagged the Rascals for six runs, highlighted by a three run home by Jimmy Yezzo against Rascals right-hander Shane Street that brought Washington within a run, 10-9. The other three relievers were Nick Kennedy (0.1 IP, 4 R, 2 ER), Michael Gunn (0.0, BB) and Will Schierholz who picked up the final out against the only batter he faced.

Alexi Colon gave the Rascals a much needed insurance run with a solo home run of his own, his 12th of the year and that capped the scoring for the afternoon at 11-9.

"It was huge, especially for me since I've been struggling. The team has pushed me to come out here every day for early work and keep the same approach and work ethic. With the help of my teammates I got my swing back and I feel pretty good right now", Alexi Colon said.

Jason Zgardowski pitched the eighth for the Rascals and Zac Treece the ninth, earning his 16th save in as many tries and ended the game with two strikeouts and a foot race to the first base bag for the final out of the game against Austin Wobrock.

"I haven't had to beat someone to the bag before for the last out and that was pretty interesting," Treece said. "Ball game was pretty nuts and ended up a little closer than we expected but it was a fun game and good that we won."

The win gave the Rascals their fourth in a row and it is their longest winning streak since June 4th.

"They started to come back and do their thing but in the end we knew we were going to come out on top. We are going back to our old ways and we're having fun," Colon said.

After two days off, the Rascals will continue their season Wednesday evening with a double-header against Florence.

First pitch is scheduled for 5:05 at CarShield Field.

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