FL Normal CornBelters

Normal Rallies in the 8th to Even Series

July 19, 2018 - Frontier League (FL)
Normal CornBelters News Release


Normal CornBelters pitcher Nick Bozman
Normal CornBelters pitcher Nick Bozman
(Normal CornBelters)

NORMAL, Ill. - After the Normal CornBelters (26-27) let up a late-inning rally to the Washington Wild things (31-25) last night, the Belters used their own as they scored four runs in the eighth in a 6-2 victory on Wednesday night.

"Only thing tonight I can say is we left runners on base every inning, we left 12 guys on base and it's really tough to win ball games like that, but when your pitching steps up like they did and our offense stepped up in a clutch situation in the eighth inning like that, putting up four runs, hats off. That's a really good hitting lineup and we only held them to five hits tonight. Our guys played well and I am really proud of them," said Manager Billy Horn.

Deadlocked 2-2 in the bottom of the eighth, the Normal offense put together a two-out rally to eventually even the series and it all started by the Captain himself, Santiago Chirino who drew a walk. After Derrick Loveless drew another walk, Andrew Godbold came up in the clutch and singled to bring in Chirino to go up 3-2. New Belter, James Davison Jr continued the rally with a single to center to increase the lead to 4-2. Rounding out the inning was Nick Cain who cleared the bases and drove in the final two runs despite being thrown out at third to end the inning.

"Hats off to our pitching staff tonight and then our bat cams alive. Godbold had a huge hit there, Cain had a big hit and Chirino had some big at-bats. Davison hit the ball well and what else can you say about our club. We are really starting to roll."

Jonathan de Marte (3-2) again showed why he is Horn's most trusted reliever. The righty kept the Wild Things off the board in his 26th outing of the season to earn his third win, which is a new career high. De Marte has not allowed an earned run since June 24th at Gateway. During this stretch of 14 scoreless innings, he has 14 strikeouts and no walks.

"I love all my guys down there (bullpen), but I go by my golden rule, I am never going to lose a game with my best arm available in the bullpen and de Marte is our guy. We talk to a lot of major league teams and I don't like to talk about it, but I talked to six or eight clubs today about him. And he comes out today 94, 95. He is just electric."

At first, it seemed like it was going to be a rough start for Nick Bozman after he gave up a solo shot to start the game and another in the second inning. However, the southpaw went on to shut down the Wild Things for the next five innings. In his second start on the season, he only allowed four hits and just one walk while striking out six. The seven innings of work set a new career high for the Boz.

"Bozman has been fantastic for us all year. He earned an opportunity to start, he really did. Another guy that should have been selected to the All-Star team, but he kind of uses that as motivation. Boz went six strong and he was at about 80 pitches or so and I said you know what, I am going to give it to him, he has earned it. An older guy who has been in the league knows how to take care of himself and his body."

The CornBelters had plenty of chances to get on the board early as they left 12 men on tonight and had runners on every inning. Normal cut the Wild Things lead in half with Loveless driving in Just Fletcher who doubled to start the third. Game two was finally tied in the sixth off a Chi Chi single that brought in Cody Erickson.

"The other thing is every time we have won three or four games in a row, all of a sudden we lose three or four in a row. So for us to come out and get a big start by Boz and really put a quick halt to that losing streak ... is fantastic. We are excited about tomorrow and we still have our goal in order in that we are going to try to win the series tomorrow."

Jacinto Garcia gets the ball tomorrow in the rubber match against Washington with first pitch at 7:05 p.m.




Images from this story

Normal CornBelters pitcher Nick Bozman
Normal CornBelters pitcher Nick Bozman
   



Frontier League Stories from July 19, 2018


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