Offense Patient, Productive In Miners Victory
August 13, 2014 - Frontier League (FL)
Southern Illinois Miners News Release
Marion, Ill. (August 12, 2014) - The Southern Illinois Miners once again used a six-run inning, this time in the fourth, to take the lead for good in a 12-7 series-opening win over the Rockford Aviators at Aviators Stadium on Tuesday night.
Early on, the lead transferred back and forth between the two teams, with Frank Martinez's sac-fly giving the Miners an early 1-0 advantage in the first before Rockford plated two in the bottom half to take a 2-1 lead. With the bases loaded on walks, Matt Jones lifted a two-run single to center field to give Southern Illinois the lead back at 3-2.
After Rockford plated three in the third to make it 5-3 in favor of the home team, the Miners went to work and batted around in the fourth. After Jones reached on an error, Jay Austin and Niko Vasquez walked to load the bases before Martinez drove home one on an RBI single. Aaron Gates then hit a sacrifice fly to right to tie the game at 5-5 before Ryan Cavan hit a ground ball to the third baseman that was thrown low in the dirt, allowing two runs to score to give Southern Illinois the lead at 7-5. Marquis Riley followed with his first home run as a Miner, a two-run blast, to make the score 9-5.
Leading 9-6 in the fifth, Vasquez added an RBI single and with the score 10-7 in the eighth, Martinez launched a two-run home run to center field to complete the scoring. Miguel Ramirez (8-4) pitched five innings and gave up three earned runs with one walk and four strikeouts to win his fifth consecutive start as the Miners took advantage of 10 walks by Rockford pitching, eight of which by starter Tony Butler (0-1), to improve to a season-best 18 games over .500 and remain tied with the Washington Wild Things for first place in the East division standings.
The Miners will look for three road wins in a row and a series victory on Wednesday night at 7:05 p.m., with Matt Bywater on the mound against Rockford's Kyle Brueggemann.
The Southern Illinois Miners are the 2012 Frontier League Champions and have been awarded the Frontier League Organization of the Year award three times since their inception. They also set a new Frontier League attendance record in 2007, their inaugural season. For ticket information, please 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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