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FL River City Rascals

Offense Rolls as Rascals Defeat CornBelters

May 27, 2016 - Frontier League (FL)
River City Rascals News Release


A pair of multi-run innings and a solid bullpen effort paved the way as the River City Rascals (7-5) snapped a two game losing skid, picking up an 8-6 win over the Normal Cornbelters (2-11) Friday night at CarShield Field.

After a 45 minute rain delay, the offense gave the home town fans a lot to cheer about early as Dominique Taylor tripled to lead off the bottom of the first. Rascals fourth year shortstop Johnny Morales followed that up with another triple and came home to score on the same play when the right fielder Austin Meadows made a throwing error trying to get it back in the infield.

The league leader in batting average Josh Silver notched a single and then the Rascals tallied their fourth hit of the inning with a RBI double from Kyle Gaedele. That wasn't it for the Rascals either in the bottom of the first off lefty Max Homick, Willi Martin doubled to bring in Gaedele and the Rascals took a 4-0 lead going into the second.

"We have been swinging the bats really well at home and the ball is not even carrying here yet which is the scary part. We had a lot of big nights from some guys and that was great to see," Manager Steve Brook said. "In that inning we had two triples which are very hard to hit in this ballpark. It was great to get off to a four run lead."

After not scoring in the first inning despite a leadoff single, the Cornbelters got a runner on with nobody out after a Rascals error. Michael Skoller gave his team their first run three batters later with a double scoring Nolan Meadows.

Jason Ziegler allowed one more run in the third inning and then was chased out of the game in the fourth when the Cornbelters rallied for four hits against him, including a RBI from three different players as they took a 5-4 lead.

In a no decision, Ziegler finished allowing five runs (4 earned) on eight hits and struck out two.

Will Schierholz took over for Ziegler and recorded the final out of the frame keeping the Rascals trailing by one run. Normal would be held to just one run the rest of the way as Schierholz combined with Lucas Laster, Nick Kennedy and Zac Treece to throw the final five innings.

"Schierholz and Laster were a huge bridge for us tonight and Nick Kennedy looked the Kennedy from 2013 and 2014," Brook said.

After falling behind by a run in the fourth, the Rascals answered and took the lead in the home half of the fourth inning. Willi Martin picked up his second double, Mike Jurgella singled and Martin tied the game up when he came home to score on the Cornbelters second error of the night. One batter later, Jason Merjano delivered a RBI double against his old team and the Rascals led the rest of the game.

"It feels great, it was nice to set a tone and show that I am good enough to play," Merjano said.

The Rascals added one more that inning with a RBI single from Josh Silver and then Jurgella scored on the Cornbelters third error of the night capping off the eight run, 16 hit night.

The 16 hits were the second most this season by River City and six players had a multi-hit night. Silver, Gaedele and Jurgella had two while Morales, Martin and Merjano had three.

"This is a great stretch for me, I just like to take every at bat one at a time, find a good pitch to hit and put a good swing on it because that's all that's in my control," Martin said, who is hitting . 407 on the season.

The Cornbelters didn't go away easy in the ninth though as they had the bases loaded with two outs trailing by two runs. Closer Zac Treece got Michael Skoller to ground out to give the Rascals the victory and picked up his third save of the year.

"Tonight was a lot of fun, what a great team win," first baseman Willi Martin said. "It was a close win and came down to the wire in that last inning. Our bullpen did great by giving our defense a chance to make plays and we were able to come out on top."

The three game series continues Saturday against the Cornbelters as Josh Wright takes the mound for the Rascals. First pitch scheduled for 6:35 p.m. at CarShield Field.

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