FL River City Rascals

Rascals Drop Game One of the Five Game Series against Gateway

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


The inability to hit with runners in scoring position hurt River City Friday night and the Rascals dropped the series opener against the Gateway Grizzlies, 5-3, in front of 6,165 fans at GCS Ballpark.

With the loss, River City (20-21) has dropped nine of their past ten games and are under .500 for the first time since May 18th.

The Rascals trailed 4-0 going into the sixth inning and had a multitude of opportunities as they loaded the bases in that inning with one out, seventh inning with no outs and had the tying run on base with nobody out in the eighth inning. Out of those three situations, River City was only able to score a pair of runs and it came in the sixth inning with Mike Jurgella accounting for both of them.

Alexi Colon got the inning going with a one out double, which was the first hit off Grizzlies starter Adam Eggnatz since the first inning and then he got to third on a wild pitch. Jurgella followed that up with a grounder to the second baseman to drive in Colon and Jurgella would reach on an error bringing up Josh Ludy. The third year Rascal executed a hit and run perfectly and it would bring the tying run up to the plate with one out. Martin loaded the bases on a walk and then after a fly out to left that was not deep enough to score Jurgella, Grizzlies manager Phil Warren went to reliever Jordan Wellander needing one more out.

Eggnatz left in line for the win tossing 5 2/3 innings allowing one run on four hits and struck out five. However, it would become two runs (one earned) four pitches later as a passed ball brought Jurgella into score making it 4-2. Wellander walked Gaedele and then Griff Gordon grounded out to end the sixth inning trailing by a pair of runs.

Rascals long reliever Reese Gregory got his team back in the dugout as quickly as he could retiring the side in order and the Rascals carried that momentum loading the bases with no outs before the stretch on a walk, single from Steve Pascual and an error by the first baseman Ben Waldrip. Yet, the Rascals were unable to score as Jurgella struck out and Warren brought in Will LaMarche to get out of the jam and he did retiring the next two hitters on a pop out and a strikeout.

The next chance came in the eighth inning as Merjano walked and Gaedele singled but nothing would come of it and the Rascals would move to 0 for 10 with runners in scoring position by grounding into double play and a rolling one right back to the mound.

After the inning ending ground out, Gateway got a huge insurance run in the home half of the eighth scoring off an error by shortstop Steve Pascual.

The game would end not too long after that despite a home run from Alexi Colon, his seventh of the year to make it 5-3. Jurgella reached on an error to put the tying run at the plate but the second double play in as many innings ended the game with a Rascals loss to open up an eleven game road trip.

Eggnatz took the win and the loss went to Rascals starter Josh Wright (2-1). Wright allowed two runs in 2 2/3 innings and left the game allowing five walks and four hits. The two runs that came home to score were on a bases loaded walk in the first inning to Brandon Thomas and a two out RBI single from Ben Waldrip in the third inning that chased Wright out of the game. Reese Gregory was the only other Rascal to throw and he kept the Rascals within striking distance allowing just three runs (two earned) on four hits and two walks in 5 1/3 innings. The two runs were via a two-run home run from third place hitter Craig Massey in the fourth inning.

The eleven game road trip continues Saturday night with a double-header in Sauget, Illinois, against Gateway beginning at 5:05. The Rascals have not named a starting pitcher for game one and Joe Pavlovich will be the starter for game two. Both games can be heard on rascals.caster.fm.

Check out the River City Rascals Statistics

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



Frontier League Stories from July 1, 2016


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central