Ninth Inning Rally Falls Short for Beach Bums
June 28, 2007 - Frontier League (FL)
Traverse City Beach Bums News Release
TRAVERSE CITY, MI - The Traverse City Beach Bums made another late inning rally, but fell to the Central Division leading Windy City Thunderbolts by a 4-3 score at Wuerfel Park on Thursday night.
The Thunderbolts grabbed a 3-0 lead with three runs in the fourth inning off of Beach Bums starter Robbie McClellan. A two out double enabled the first run to score, while an error contributed to two other runs. McClellan, coming off a start that saw him leave with an injury, was on a pitch count and went through five innings allowing three runs, only one of which was earned. He struck out five and allowed four hits but still suffered the loss.
Jeff Williams threw two scoreless innings in relief of McClellan and posted three strikeouts without allowing a hit. Nick Pepper pitched the eighth inning and allowed a leadoff triple that came in to score to give Windy City a 4-0 edge. He was lifted for Bryan Rembisz who tossed the final 1.1 innings for the Beach Bums.
With Windy City starter Billy Phillips working into the ninth inning, the Beach Bums had only five hits against him. That changed as Phillips allowed a leadoff homer to Brad Vericker in the ninth inning. Vericker's homer was his second of the season, clearing the fence in right to put the Beach Bums on the board. A double by Ben Ramsey ended the evening for Phillips, who earned the win for the Thunderbolts.
Anthony Rebyanski came on and surrendered a base hit to Jeff Vincent that score Ramsey and made it a 4-2 game. Vincent went to second when Windy City's right fielder Scott Billak over ran the ball. Vincent would move to third on a wild pitch and scored after he was caught in a rundown but the ball was dropped by third baseman Josh Horn. Rebyanski recorded an out before a Zack Kalter double put they tying run on second with one out. Matt Petty entered for the Thunderbolts and Justin Holmes reached on an error to put runners at the corners with only one out. Beach Bums manager Jon Cahill brought in Curtis Ledbetter off the bench to pinch hit and Ledbetter hit a hard grounder right at the Windy City second baseman, who turned the fourth double play of the contest for the Thunderbolts to end the game.
The Beach Bums allowed only five hits to the Thunderbolts, the top hitting team in the league, during the game. Traverse City connected on nine hits as JT Thomas, Jeff Vincent, and Brad Vericker all had two. Vericker was tabbed as the Player of the Game.
The series with Windy City will conclude tomorrow night at Wuerfel Park in a 7:05 pm contest. It will be a busy Friday night as it will be a FANtastic Fireworks Friday also featuring a Beach Party and Hawaiian Lei giveaway. The contest will also be the birthday celebration for mascots Suntan and Sunburn. RHP Tony Casoli (3-3, 7.49) will start for the Beach Bums against Windy City's RHP Brock Hunton (3-0, 2.36). Tim Calderwood will broadcast the game on The Fox FM beginning with the Beach Bums On Deck Show at 6:45 pm.
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