Miners' Bullpen Stumbles in Home Defeat
May 27, 2016 - Frontier League (FL)
Southern Illinois Miners News Release
Marion, Ill. - The Southern Illinois Miners had a 4-0 lead after six innings and a 4-1 lead heading into the top of the eighth, but three pitchers could not hold the Evansville Otters back, as the visitors batted around to come back and take a 6-4 lead and eventually win the game by that score on Friday night at Rent One Park.
The Miners again scored in the first to take the lead, with Craig Massey extending his hitting streak to 10 in a row with a leadoff triple that got under the glove of Evansville outfielder Kurt Wertz, Jr. Francisco Rosario then drove him home with an RBI groundout to make it 1-0. Southern Illinois would double that lead against former Miner Hunter Ackerman (1-1) in the fourth on an Alex De Leon RBI single, making it 2-0.
The Miners plated a pair of runs in the sixth inning off Ackerman as well, as De Leon and Aaron Gates hit back-to-back RBI singles after a single by Massey and a hit-by-pitch of Nolan Earley. Jarett Miller was outstanding again for Southern Illinois on the mound, retiring 12 out of 13 at one point between the second and sixth innings. In the seventh, after the last of his seven strikeouts, he allowed two hits and a walk as the Otters got on the board, but with two on and one out, Jake Cose got a strikeout and a flyout to keep the game 4-1.
In the eighth inning, the trouble started, as Evan Mott allowed two singles and a walk for a run while recording one out on a fielder's choice. Against Kevin Walsh, the Otters would load the bases before Andrew Potter induced a sacrifice fly to record the second out of the inning and make the score 4-3. But the Otters did not stop there, plating the tying run on a double by Rolando Gomez and, after a walk to re-load the bases to Josh Allen, a two-run single by Dane Phillips to give the Otters a 6-4 advantage.
The Miners would get the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the eighth and ninth, but a double-play groundout (one of four that Southern Illinois hit into on the game) and a strikeout thwarted their comeback attempts.
De Leon finished with three hits and two RBIs while Gates went 2-for-4 with an RBI and Massey and Earley each went 2-for-3 with two runs scored as the Miners dropped back-to-back games for the second time this season. They will look to even up the series at 6:05 p.m. on Saturday night in Marion.
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