FL River City Rascals

Rascals Slug Their Way to a Series Opening Win

Published on July 16, 2016 under Frontier League (FL)
River City Rascals News Release


Rascals Slug Their Way to a Series Opening Win
Rascals Slug Their Way to a Series Opening Win
(River City Rascals)

River City opened up the second half of the 2016 campaign slugging their way to an 8-4 victory against the Schaumburg Boomers Friday night at CarShield Field.

In the win, the Rascals (24-26) tallied five home runs on the night, including three in the sixth inning to take the lead and remained out in front the rest of the night.

Having won just five of their previous 20 games, the Rascals tough times continued early on as in the opening frame the Boomers jumped out to an early 2-0 lead.

Tim Koons was on the mound for River City and began the game walking Zach Weigal on four pitches. Their leadoff hitter would get to second on a wild pitch and then got over to third after a single from Jordan Dean. The Boomers scratched across their first run a few pitches later with a sacrifice fly from their team leader in RBI, Paul Kronenfeld, and took a 2-0 lead after an error from the Rascals shortstop Steve Pascual.

After Koons recorded the final out in the inning, he held the opponent scoreless the next four frames and his offense provided some runs giving him a 4-2 lead after the fifth inning.

The first two runs came off a pair of home runs to right field off Boomers starter Seth Webster. Clint Freeman hit his second in as many games with one out in the second inning to cut the deficit in half and then Alexi Colon tied the game up with his tenth home run of the year in the fourth inning.

"Getting more at-bats has really helped me out these past few games," Freeman said. "My swing right now feels as good as it's been all season. I am having more direction with my hits and am able to hit the ball straight instead of top spinning balls and hitting a lot of flares."

This was Webster's second time on the year facing the Rascals and he was one out away from getting his team into the sixth inning tied at two. However, Jason Merjano singled, Braxton Martinez drew a walk and Colon singled to load the bases in the fifth inning with all with two outs. Kyle Gaedele was up next and despite being down in the count 0-2, he ripped a double down the left field line that drove in a pair of runs to give the Rascals their first lead of the night, 4-2.

With the lead, Koons had the chance to become the first Rascal to four wins on the year however he allowed two consecutive hits, including a two run home run from Kenny Towns that brought the game back to even at four. The third year Rascal allowed another single before recording an out and was then replaced by the Rascals veteran Nick Kennedy.

In his eighth start of the year, Koons allowed four runs (3 earned) on six hits and struck out three.

His replacement, Kennedy, kept the game tied by recording three consecutive outs and the Rascals offense put him in line for the win with a powerful bottom of the sixth inning.

Clint Freeman led off the frame with a single and then the Rascals hit back-to-back homeruns, a two run shot by Willi Martin and a solo home run from Robby Enslen that gave the Rascals a 7-4 lead. After Webster retired Pascual, Boomers manager Jaime Bennett went to southpaw David Napoli and Merjano greeted him with the third home run of the inning, a solo shot to cap off the Rascals eight run night.

"Seth Webster is a great pitcher, we just had a great mindset coming in off the all-star break and were able to get some great swings against him," Alexi Colon said. "We got into some great counts, were able to lay off the off-speed and it worked out for us."

Kennedy combined with Michael Gunn and Zac Treece to hold the opponent scoreless the rest of the way despite the bases being loaded in the seventh inning.

Seth Webster took the loss giving up seven runs on ten hits and is now 4-6 on the year.

With the win, River City has the chance to win their first series at CarShield Field since June 9th. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 Saturday night with Francis Ramirez on the mound.

Check out the River City Rascals Statistics

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Rascals Slug Their Way to a Series Opening Win
Rascals Slug Their Way to a Series Opening Win
   



Frontier League Stories from July 16, 2016


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