FL River City Rascals

Rascals Drop Sixth Straight During Holiday Weekend

Published on July 4, 2016 under Frontier League (FL)
River City Rascals News Release


Braxton Martinez gave River City an early lead however Gateway responded with a six run bottom of the third inning en route to a 10-2 victory Sunday night at GCS Ballpark.

The loss marked the Rascals (20-24) sixth straight loss and they have now dropped 12 of their past 13 games dating back to June 18th against Evansville.

Gateway had to find a starter for Sunday night's game due to the scheduled starter, Trevor Richards, being sold to the Miami Marlins Sunday morning and they went with lefty Jon Jones. In his first start of the season, he retired the Rascals in order in the first and his opponent Tim Koons matched him in the home half.

The Rascals got their first baserunner of the night in their next opportunity as Mike Jurgella drew a walk and then Manager Steve Brook went to small ball early trying to scratch across the first run of the game. Jason Merjano was asked to lay down a sacrifice bunt but Grizzlies catcher Tyler Tewell didn't allow that to happen and retired Jurgella at the second base bag. Despite the out, Merjano would reach on a fielder's choice and then got into scoring position with a stolen base.

With two outs, Braxton Martinez notched his first professional RBI with a single into center field to score Merjano and gave the Rascals their only lead of the night, 1-0.

Tim Koons kept the opponent out of scoring position again in the bottom of the second but the Grizzlies began to find success off Koons and opened up the bottom of the third with a pair of singles. Four pitches later, Cody Livesay intended to sacrifice both runners into scoring position with a bunt back to the pitchers mound and Koons tried to retire the lead runner but threw it by Martinez at third causing a run to come in to score and tie the game at one.

With no outs, Seth Heck gave the Grizzlies a 2-1 lead with a RBI single and then after a walk to load the bases, four more runs would come into score via a sacrifice fly, RBI single and a two RBI double from Ben Waldrip to extend the lead to 6-1.

Game four of the series remained a five run contest until the sixth when Rascals outfielder Kyle Gaedele hit his fifth home run of the year to make it 6-2 off Jon Jones in his final inning of work.

Gateway responded with a pair of home runs of their own, a two-run opposite field home run by Josh Bunselmeyer off Koons and then another two-run home run from Ben Waldrip off reliever Jared Wilson to cap off the Grizzlies ten run, eleven hit night.

Tim Koons took the loss, his second of the year allowing eight runs (4 earned) on nine hits and Jon Jones earned his first win of the year hurling six frames and the two earned runs on four hits. Jordan Wellander tossed for Jones in the final three innings and allowed just one hit and struck out five.

The holiday series will continue Monday night at 6:35 and the Rascals send Francis Ramirez to the mound looking to salvage the five game series. The Rascals currently are four games under .500 and sit in fourth place in the western division.

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Frontier League Stories from July 4, 2016


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