FL River City Rascals

Rascals Close out Homestand with Loss to Joliet

Published on July 1, 2016 under Frontier League (FL)
River City Rascals News Release


River City brought the tying run to the plate in the ninth inning but were unable to capture a series victory as the Rascals fell 7-4 to the Joliet Slammers Thursday night at CarShield Field.

It was the final home game until July 15th and the Rascals went into the bottom of the ninth inning trailing 7-2 against the starting lefty Spencer Medick. Griff Gordon and Alexi Colon led off the inning with a single and then Medick struck out Mike Jurgella to become two outs away from becoming the first Slammers pitcher to throw a complete game in 2016.

He didn't help his cause as he walked Josh Ludy on four pitches to get over the 105 pitch mark but he stayed in the game and was nearly one pitch away from a complete game. However, a bobble on the exchange from the second baseman Carter Bell allowed Willi Martin to reach on a fielders choice and brought a run in to score to make it 7-3. Medick stayed in needing one more out but was unable to record it as Robby Enslen picked up his second hit of the game to score Colon and brought the tying run to the plate which was Jason Merjano.

Slammers manager Jeff Isom pulled Medick at 114 pitches and it was Kevin Simmons to record the final out, a fly out to left field to capture the Slammers first series win in O'Fallon since 2012.

"I was trying to do everything I could to keep the inning going, we have a lot of good hitters on this team and I was hoping we were going to complete the comeback," Enslen said. 'We didn't and came up a little short tonight but we are back it tomorrow."

On the mound Thursday night for River City was Zeb Sneed and he had a great start retiring ten of the first 12 hitters that faced him. However, one of the two that he did not retire was Carter Bell and he got the Slammers on the board first with a solo home run in the second inning.

The Rascals had a good chance to tie the game up for Sneed in the second after a leadoff double from Willi Martin but the next three balls failed to leave the infield and Martin was left stranded at second.

The home town team executed better with runners in scoring position in the third and with two runners on and one out, Mike Jurgella extended his hitting streak to 12 games and tied the game up with a RBI double.

Run support has been a struggle for Zeb Sneed this year and the trend continued tonight. In his seven starts prior to tonight, his offense only gave him more than three runs in one outing and in tonight's action they only gave him two.

After a three run home run by Jake Gronsky that just got over the short porch in right field to make the game 4-1, the only other run for Sneed was a leadoff home run by Robby Enslen in the bottom of the fourth.

It was Enslen's third of the year and it cut the lead in half for the Rascals who were trying to avoid losing their fourth series of the year.

"I was the first man up in the inning and I was just trying to barrel up the baseball," Enslen said. "He left the ball up and I was able to do what I wanted to with it."

Sneed kept his team in striking distance by allowing just two hits in the next three innings and then he was pulled before the eighth inning began in line for the loss.

In seven innings, Sneed allowed four runs on six hits and tallied four strikeouts. Thursday night marked the seventh start of the year in which Sneed has lasted more than six innings, nearly more than the rest of the pitching staff combined. In the teams other 32 starts, nine starters have combined for just nine starts of six innings or more.

Shane Street was Sneed's first reliever and he allowed a run to make it 5-2 and then Zac Treece came in for the ninth and the Slammers tagged him for a pair of runs. Will Schierholz was the fourth Rascals pitcher of the night and he recorded the final two outs in the ninth inning to give the Rascals one more opportunity trailing 7-2.

However, the Rascals rally fell short with the tying run at the plate to fall to 1-6 on the homestand finale. The Rascals season continues Friday night against Gateway and it will begin an eleven game road trip, the longest of the season. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 with Josh Wright on the mound making his first start since June 16th.

Every road game can be heard on rascals.caster.fm.

Check out the River City Rascals Statistics

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Frontier League Stories from July 1, 2016


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