Offense Surges to Take Series Opener over Gateway
July 28, 2018 - Frontier League (FL)
Normal CornBelters News Release
Andrew Godbold of the Normal CornBelters
(Normal CornBelters)
NORMAL, Ill. - The offense came from the whole lineup tonight as the Normal CornBelters (31-30) defeated the Gateway Grizzlies (28-38) 11-6 in the series opener in front of 1,815 at The Corn Crib on a cool Friday night.
"It's great when you come out and take the first game of the series. Especially after a big series win on the road against a division opponent. Our guys came out swinging," said Manager Billy Horn.
The CornBelters erased a two-run Gateway home run with Andrew Godbold's 15th double into left-center that tied the game 2-2. J.J. Bissell kept the inning alive on a two-out walk that loaded the bases. Cody Erickson then gave the Belters a 4-2 lead off a single.
After being shutout in the second and third, Normal added two more runs in the fourth off RBI singles by Santiago Chirino and Godbold. The Belters bats stayed hot in the next frame. James Davison Jr. doubled down the right field line to bring in Gerald Bautista who replaced Bissell after he singled. Chirino used his third hit of the game to push the lead to 9-2. Godbold and Nick Cain put together back-to-back singles to give the CornBelters their biggest lead of the game, 11-2.
Connor Root (1-1) gave up a two-run homer in the first and then went on to shutout the Grizzlies in four straight innings to earn his first victory as a CornBelter. The former Chicago Dog walked two and added four strikeouts in his first start. The Grizzlies got to him in his final inning (6th) of work and plated three runs across. Three of the four hits Root gave up tonight were home runs.
Miles Moeller finished the seventh as Gateway used a Normal error to make it an 11-6 ball game. Thomas Nicoll completed the final two innings and maintained his 0.00 ERA by picking up two strikeouts. The righty now has 10 K's in 8.1 innings of work.
"We got a pretty good start out of Root today. He hadn't pitched in about 10 games so it has been a while for him. Gave up a couple runs in the sixth, but he was pretty good for us. Moeller came in and didn't have his best stuff, but got out of it. Nicoll came in and did his thing."
Normal collectively put together 16 hits from all over the lineup in which every starter had at least one hit. Chi Chi added to the all-time record with four hits and now has a lifetime of 672 hits and leads the Frontier League with 88 hits this season. Godbold, Erickson, and Davison Jr all had multi-hit games tonight. In just 12 games played, Davison Jr has had hit in every game he has batted and now has six multi-hit games.
"Offensively, Chirino, Godbold, Loveless, Cain, and Davison at the top of the order, these guys just swung the bats for us tonight and it was a really good game for us to see. Bissell is swinging the bat good, had a little tightness in his back so we brought in Bautista. Erickson has been solid back there ever since he got the starting job, he's been running away with it."
With tonight's win, Normal now owns second place in the west outright, and still remains a half-game back from first place River City. Jack Landwehr aims to clinch the series tomorrow against Gateway with first pitch at 7:05 p.m.
Images from this story
 Andrew Godbold of the Normal CornBelters |
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