Miners Rally Again to Beat Rascals
May 21, 2015 - Frontier League (FL)
Southern Illinois Miners News Release
Marion, Ill. - The Southern Illinois Miners made another late comeback with three runs in the bottom of the seventh to rally to beat River City again by a score of 4-3 on a chilly evening at Rent One Park in Marion.
With the win, the Miners clinched their first series win over River City in their last four tries dating back to June of 2013. They fell behind 3-0 in the first four innings with just two hits in that span offensively. The Rascals were able to get to Matt Bywater for all three runs. Fred Ford drove home the first run in the 2nd inning, and in the 4th, Hector Crespo and Curran Redal contributed RBI hits. Ford, however, trying to score from second on Redal's hit, was thrown out at the plate to end the inning.
That would prove costly as the Rascals did not score again. In the meantime, Aaron Gates continued his red-hot start with a triple to the right field corner and scored on a sacrifice fly by Frank Martinez in the fifth to make the score 3-1. It was Gates' second career triple, and sparked another Miners comeback that was completed in the seventh.
Gates doubled for his fourth extra-base hit in his last two games with one out and Martinez walked. After a strikeout for the second out of the inning against reliever Tommy Danczyk (0-1), Wendell Fairley came through with an RBI single to left that just eluded the shortstop's diving glove. A subsequent fielding error on Ford in left allowed Martinez to score from first to tie the game at 3-3 and Fairley to go to second. Niko Vasquez then singled home Fairley with the eventual winning run.
The bullpen made it stand up, throwing four more scoreless frames, with Eric Green (1-0) tossing two of them to earn his first win as a Miner and Will Rankin pitching out of a jam with two strikeouts in the ninth after Crespo led off by reaching on an error for his fourth save. He also extended his scoreless streak to 28 1/3 innings in the process.
Gates, Fairley and Michael Earley finished with two hits apiece for the Miners, who won for the fourth time in their first five games, just the second time in franchise history they have won at least that many times in their first five contests. They will send Adam Lopez to the mound looking for the sweep on Thursday night at 7:05 p.m.
The Southern Illinois Miners are the 2014 Frontier League East Division Champions and the 2012 Frontier League Champions. They have been awarded the Frontier League Organization of the Year award three times since their inception, and also set a new Frontier League attendance record in 2007, their inaugural season. For ticket information, contact the Rent One Park box office at 618-998-8499. For any additional information, visit our website at www.southernillinoisminers.com.
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