Rascals off to Best Start in Franchise History

May 29, 2012 - Frontier League (FL)
River City Rascals News Release

O'Fallon, Mo. - River City (9-1) won their eighth-straight game to improve to 9-1 with a 5-1 win over Traverse City (6-4) on Tuesday night behind a last-second start by rookie Jason Sullivan and an offense that got on track with some timely hitting in the middle innings.

Sullivan (2-0) made his first professional start, with 15 minutes of notice, in place of Brad Stillings who experienced shoulder trouble while warming up prior to what was supposed to be his third start. Sullivan, rookie out of Western Carolina, threw five shutout innings while allowing three hits and striking out four to just one walk and left the game with a 1-0 lead after Gerardo Avila looped a single to left that scored Charlie Lisk in the fourth.

Sullivan induced a double play ball with his final pitch of the night before the Rascals plated two more runs in the bottom of the fifth on consecutive two-out singles from Lisk and Avila, who finished the game 3-for-4.

Nick Kennedy pitched scoreless frames in the sixth and seventh innings while the offense pushed the score to 4-0 in the sixth when a hit-and-run double from Bobby Burk scored Curran Redal from first after he walked to lead off the inning.

Rascals setup man Brandon Cunniff struck out two in the eighth but allowed a solo homerun to Brian Heere to close the game to 4-1 but River City responded in the eighth when Burk lead off with a single before advancing to second on a balk and scoring on an errant throw.

Dustin Umberger pitched around a walk in the ninth with a pair of strikeouts to finish the game.

River City is back in action Wednesday night with first pitch set for 7:05 and a pair of lefties on the mound. Bennett Whitmore (0-1, 1.42) takes the ball for the Beach Bums against the Rascals' Justin Edwards (1-1, 4.09).

NOTES:

-Brad Stillings plans to make his next scheduled start Sunday against Evansville

-Jeremy Synan had his hit streak end at eight games

-Eric Williams added three walks on the night to push his league lead to 12

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