Miners Top Crushers for Fifth Straight Win
Published on August 25, 2015 under Frontier League (FL)
Southern Illinois Miners News Release
Marion, Ill. (August 25, 2015) - The Southern Illinois Miners jumped out to a 6-0 lead on Tuesday night against the Lake Erie Crushers at Rent One Park thanks to two-out offense and six shutout innings from Rick Teasley to earn a 6-4 win, moving the team to 29 games over the .500 mark at 57-28 and lowering their magic number to clinch a division title down to just six.
Teasley (9-3) and Lake Erie starter Zach Morton (4-4) went toe-to-toe until the third inning. After Morton retired the first two he faced in the frame, Toby DeMello doubled to left-center and Craig Massey drew a walk. Aaron Gates and Michael Earley then smacked back-to-back RBI singles to plate two runs and give the Miners the early 2-0 advantage. The Miners also bunched together three hits in a row in both the fourth and fifth innings to score single runs in both frames for a 4-0 lead, including RBIs by DeMello and Jerrud Sabourin.
In the seventh inning against reliever Matt Brankle, Frank Martinez smashed a line-drive home run into the visiting bullpen for a solo shot and his first home run since June 16th at Washington to make it 5-0, and was followed immediately by Niko Vasquez, who clubbed a solo homer off the top of the left-center field wall and out on the next pitch from Brankle for a 6-0 Miners lead. It was Vasquez's second straight game with a home run.
Those hits would be big as the Crushers scored three in the eighth on a three-run home run by Boo Vazquez off Joe Iorio, then after a questionable non-strike call in the ninth got another run on an RBI single by Mark Fowler against Eric Green for a 6-4 ballgame. But Green fanned the side as well in the ninth to earn his 11th save and nail down the Miners' fifth straight win overall.
Every starter in the Miners' batting order had at least one hit in the game, with Gates, Martinez, Vasquez and Sabourin all with two-hit games and six RBIs by six different players as Southern Illinois took the series opener. They will go for the series win on Wednesday night in the second game of the series at 7:05 p.m., starting Tim Flight on the mound against Lake Erie lefty Brad Zambron.
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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