FL River City Rascals

Rascals Get Back to .500 with Saturday Night Win

Published on August 21, 2016 under Frontier League (FL)
River City Rascals News Release


The River City Rascals (42-42) jumped out to an early lead and won their twelfth series of the year Saturday night as they defeated the Windy City ThunderBolts (36-46) at CarShield Field 8-4.

With the win, it put the Rascals at the .500 mark for the first time since June 30th and now sit just one game back of the final wild card spot held by the Normal CornBelters.

Five different Rascals had a multi-hit game and Zeb Sneed turned in a solid seven inning performance that landed him his seventh win of the year.

He got to pitch with the lead for the majority of his outing as the Rascals slugger Alexi Colon took the first pitch out of the hand from Bolts right-hander Clay Chapman over the right-center wall.

Chapman then retired three in a row to get out of the inning and his offense took their only lead in the top of the second inning with a two-run home run from Taylor Smart.

Sneed was stellar the next five innings and didn't allow another runner in scoring position until the eighth.

The 2-1 lead for the Bolts only lasted for a few minutes as just like Friday night's game, the Rascals led 5-2 after their next opportunity.

Jason Merjano got the second frame going with single and then got into scoring position after a single from Mike Jurgella. With no outs, Manager Steve Brook had Robby Enslen sacrifice them both into scoring position and it paid off as they came around to give the Rascals a 3-2 lead with a two RBI double from Clint Freeman. It was the first game back for Freeman after going down with a wrist injury this past Tuesday.

"I got to give this night straight to the lord, I say that because I came to the field today and thought there was no way I was going play," Freeman said. "I took some batting practice, went and got some therapy on it and then I was in the lineup but my wrist still didn't feel that good even up until game time."

The inning got worse for the Bolts starting pitcher as he loaded the bases and the Rascals took the 5-2 advantage via a two RBI single from Johnny Morales.

The Rascals tacked on three more against Chapman later in the game with a RBI each from Freeman (6th inning), Merjano (7th inning) and Mike Jurgella (7th).

Taking the loss, Chapman allowed eight runs on 13 hits and walked two in six 2/3 innings.

His offense didn't help him out while he was in the game but did scratch across some runs later in the game.

In the top of the eighth, the ThunderBolts put together back-to-back singles that chased Zeb Sneed from the game at 117 pitches. Rascals veteran Nick Kennedy replaced him after getting Coco Johnson to fly out, Kyle Wood laced a two RBI double to center that scored the final runs of the game to make it 8-4.

Kennedy finished the inning on a pair of ground outs and Skylar Hunter controlled the top of the ninth while striking out two.

Sneed took the win, his seventh of the year going seven strong innings allowing four runs on six hits. The highlight of the night for Sneed was his nine strikeouts, five of those coming in the 5th-7th innings.

'Hat's off to Zeb and the rest of our pitching staff, they have been great lately," Clint Freeman said. "We have been battling as entire team recently and that's why you are seeing us win a lot more games."

The Rascals look to get another solid pitching performance in the series finale as Tim Koons takes the mound Sunday afternoon.

First pitch is scheduled for 4:05 at CarShield Field.

Check out the River City Rascals Statistics

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Frontier League Stories from August 21, 2016


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