MWL1 Peoria Chiefs

Late Rally Falls Short Again as Chiefs Lose to Bees, 5-4

Published on June 30, 2010 under Midwest League (MWL1)
Peoria Chiefs News Release


Burlington, IA - For the second straight night a late Peoria Chiefs rally fell short after early unearned runs put the Burlington Bees on track for a 5-4 win Wednesday night in Iowa. The loss drops the Chiefs to 2-4 in the second half and 40-35 overall in 2010.

The Chiefs' walk and error woes from Tuesday carried over to the first inning on Wednesday. After allowing four early walks and three unearned runs on Tuesday night the Chiefs gave up another unearned run and a walk in the first Wednesday. Gerard Hall began the game with a bunt single and moved to third on a single by Deivy Batista. With one down Ryan Searle walked Joey Lewis to load the bases, and Rene Oriental put the Bees up 2-0 with a single to left. Jose Bonilla hit a grounder to first that and Justin Bour's throw to start a double play sailed into left field allowing Lewis to score for a 3-0 lead. After the unearned run scored, Fernando Cruz bounced into a 4-6-3 double play to end the inning.

Another error helped the Bees add to their lead without benefit of a hit in the third inning. Carlo Testa hit a bouncer to first but Searle was late covering the bag at first and then dropped the throw from Bour for the error. Testa stole second, moved to third on a grounder back to Searle and scored on a groundout to third by Bonilla.

The Chiefs finally got on the board against All-Star Tyler Sample in the fourth inning. Matt Cerda led off with a single and scored on a one-out triple by Greg Rohan. With two down Jae-Hoon Ha singled home Rohan to cut the Bees lead to 4-2.

With one out in the fifth inning Luis Flores doubled down the right field line off Sample. Flores moved to third on a groundout and scores on an infield single by Cerda to cut the Burlington lead to 4-3. Sample recovered to get DJ Fitzgerald on a flyout to end the inning with the Bees on top.

The Bees added a crucial insurance run against Larry Suarez in the seventh. Number nine hitter Hilton Richardson worked a lead-off walk and stole second. Two outs later Testa singled home Richardson for a 5-3 Burlington lead.

That run proved to be huge as the Chiefs rallied against the Bees bullpen in the eighth. With one out Mitch Hodge walked Cerda and then uncorked a wild pitch to advance Cerda to second. Cerda moved to third on a groundout and Ryan Dennick relieved Hodge. Rohan singled up the middle to score Cerda and Bour singled to right to put the tying run at second and the go-ahead run on first. But Dennick got Ha to fly out to right to end the inning with the Bees leading 5-4. The Chiefs went in order in the ninth against Dennick to end the game as the Bees' lefty earned his third save of the season.

Searle (4-2) allowed four runs, two earned, on four hits and three walks over five innings. He struck out five and was called for a balk. Suarez allowed one run on one hit and one walk over two innings while striking out three. Jordan Latham threw a perfect inning with all three outs recorded on groundballs to second base.

Casey's General Store Player of the Game - Matt Cerda (2B) - Cerda was 2-for-3 with a wlk, RBI and a run scored Wednesday night. He has two hits in back-to-back games and was 5-for-10 with two RBI and two walks in the three-game series. Notes...The Chiefs were called for another balk Wednesday by the umpiring crew of Javier Cantu and Chris Nguyen, the third straight game the Chiefs have been called for a balk, with four called in those games...Peoria was called for a total of three balks in the first half, a span of 69 games...The Chiefs finished the month of June 12-12...The Chiefs allowed two unearned runs on Wednesday after allowing two on Tuesday...Searle had won three straight starts with his last loss coming May 21 at Quad Cities...Francisco Guzman (hamstring) missed his sixth straight game while Logan Watkins (wrist) missed his fourth to give the Chiefs just one healthy bench player, backup catcher Mario Mercedes...Burlington stole four bases on the night...Rohan is now second in the MWL in RBI with 49 trailing just Jereme Tice of Lake County who has 51 after driving in five on Wednesday afternoon...Lee had his road on-base streak snapped at 22 games...The last time Lee was not on base in a road game was April 25 at Quad Cities in game two of a double header...Cerda has 17 multi-hit games and two in a row...Rohan has 20 multi-hit games, second on the team...Nelson Perez struck out in the second inning giving him a strike out in five straight outs dating back to Monday...The Chiefs finish 6-4 in Burlington this season and 9-4 overall against the Bees with three matchups left at O'Brien Field August 18-20...The roadtrip continues in Geneva, IL against the Kane County Cougars Thursday at 6:30 p.m...The Chiefs will pitch RH Su-Min Jung (5-3, 3.75) against Cougars RH Dan Straily (5-4, 4.74)...The broadcast can be heard starting with the pregame show at 6:15 p.m. on 96.5 ESPN and www.peoriachiefs.com.

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Midwest League Stories from June 30, 2010


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