FL River City Rascals

Ramirez Makes Rascals Debut But Takes the Loss against the Miners

Published on June 23, 2016 under Frontier League (FL)
River City Rascals News Release


The visiting Southern Illinois Miners (22-12) sent 13 batters to the plate in the eighth inning and scored eight runs on eight hits to pick up an opening series victory against the River City Rascals (19-15), 14-5 Tuesday night at CarShield Field.

Despite the rough ending, the Rascals remained in striking distance for the majority of the contest and opened things up with a five hit first inning against Miners starter Dan Ludwig.

Mike Porcaro led things off with a single into left field for his first professional hit and it was followed by a single from Mike Jurgella to put Porcaro on third. The Rascals took the lead one batter later with a RBI single from Kyle Gaedele and led 2-0 when Jurgella came into score on a double play ball. Josh Ludy singled and Griff Gordon doubled to give the Rascals the five hit inning however Willi Martin grounded out to end the frame.

Another Rascal making a debut tonight was the Rascals starting pitcher Francis Ramirez. Ramirez last played for the Houston Astros organization (A-) in 2014 and the Miners tied the game against him in their next opportunity. Ramirez walked Alex De Leon and then picked up his first strikeout of the season by retiring Nolan Early. The next batter didn't go his way though as Steve Marino lined a homer over the left field wall to tie the game up at two.

Dan Ludwig held the Rascals hitless for the next two innings and then he got to pitch with the lead in the bottom of the fourth after Marino's second two-run home run. Besides Marino, only two other hits were recorded off Ramirez and he left the game after holding the Miners scoreless in the fifth to keep it at 4-2.

In five innings of action, Ramirez allowed four runs on four hits and struck out three.

After the first inning, Ramirez didn't get much support offensively from his own guys as the Rascals failed to record a hit off Dan Ludwig the remainder of his outing. His final inning was the sixth and he left with a 6-2 lead via a pair of solo home runs from Alex De Leon and Vin Guglietti off the second Rascals pitcher of the night, Josh Wright.

Miners manager Mike Pinto went to his bullpen with the four run lead and the Rascals found success and sent nine batters to the plate. It took the Miners four pitchers to get out of the inning and Willi Martin was hit by a pitch to lead things off. Kyle Tinius then allowed back-to-back hits, a single to Jason Merjano and then a two RBI ground rule double from Robby Enslen to bring the Rascals within a pair. Pinto called on Nick Palacios and he struck out the first batter before Jurgella drove in Enslen from second with a single to make it a one run contest. Palacios recorded one more strikeout and then Alex Ministeri and Jake Cose combined to keep the Miners one run lead.

That would be the closest the Rascals would get to taking the lead as the Miners answered with their largest inning of the night, eight runs on eight hits to take a 14-5 lead. Jared Wilson, Nick Kennedy, Michael Gunn and Will Schierholz all threw in the inning and for the Miners they recorded RBI's from six different players. Toby De Mello had two while five others each added one with the final run coming home to score on a wild pitch.

Jason Merjano would pick up a hit for the Rascals in the eighth to give the Rascals a nine hit night but that was the end of the baserunners as the Rascals fell to the Miners for the fourth time in their last five games.

Prior to the game, Kyle Gaedele was given the Frontier League Player of the Week award by Deputy Commissioner Steve Tahsler for the week ending on June 12th where Gaedele was 11-24 with 10 RBI.

"It is a nice personal accolade to have but when it comes down to it team wise this year is all about getting wins," Gaedele said. "We haven't been playing well recently so I am going to continue to try and do everything I can to help the team win."

The quick two game series wraps up Thursday morning with an 11:05 a.m. start against the Southern Illinois Miners. Joe Scanio will be on the mound against the Miners right-hander Josh Kimborowicz.

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Frontier League Stories from June 23, 2016


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