FL River City Rascals

Rascals Sweep Doubleheader against Washington

Published on August 6, 2016 under Frontier League (FL)
River City Rascals News Release


A pair of dominant pitching performances led the River City Rascals to a double-header sweep against the Washington Wild Things Saturday night at CarShield Field in front of 2, 375 fans. Southpaw Austin Warner combined with two relievers for a 2-0 shutout in game one and then Tim Koons turned in his first complete game of the year in a 9-2 win. Game One:

In the hunt for a two game winning streak for the first time since July 23rd, Austin Warner took the mound and ended up getting his first professional win of his career.

It wasn't easy early on for Warner though as he had to escape from a first inning bases loaded jam after two hits and a walk. The lefty answered back with a strikeout, his second of the inning to keep the game knotted at zero heading into the home half of the first.

Opposing Warner Saturday night was Matt Fraudin, who held the Rascals to no runs on three hits back on July 20th. The righty retired the first five hitters in his second outing against the 2010 Frontier League Champion before slugger Clint Freeman came up and put an end to the early shutout with a solo home run over the right center wall to give the Rascals a 1-0 lead.

Fraudin and Warner combined to hold the opponent scoreless the next three frames and Warner's outing came to an end after the fifth inning leaving in line for the win.

In five innings, Warner allowed no runs on a scattered six hits with five strikeouts.

"Being able to get ahead with my fastball was huge tonight, the majority of their hits came from breaking balls," Warner said. "Felt good to get the win and be in the starting role again. I'm a starter by heart and enjoy getting the ball to begin the game."

After a scoreless top of the sixth inning from Shane Street, the Rascals got a leadoff single from Mike Jurgella and he would come into score two batters later on a two-base sacrifice fly from cleanup hitter Kyle Gaedele.

Offensively, the Rascals finished with just those two runs on four hits, two from Freeman, one from Jurgella and a liner into right field from Braxton Martinez.

Zac Treece tossed a perfect ninth, striking out the side and earned his 15th save of the year.

Game Two:

As the Rascals got their first two game winning streak since July 23rd, the next task was to go on a three game winning streak for the first time since June 15th.

Dominant against eastern division opponents all season, Tim Koons took the mound for the regular scheduled game and besides a two hit, two run second inning, the third year Rascal faced the minimum in all other frames and ended the game having retired 15 Wild Things hitters in a row.

"A groundball to third was really the only thing that cost him the two runs. Koons had great command tonight with a lot of sink on his sinker which kept him keep the ball down in the zone," Manager Steve Brook said.

Those two runs allowed from Koons were not the first of the game as his offense tallied a pair of runs in their first opportunity via a two out, two RBI double from catcher Josh Ludy putting the Rascals on top 2-0.

"Playing double-headers are hard win you lose game one and if you get behind early in game two, it's mentally draining on you so it was good to get the big knock from Ludy to begin the game," Brook said.

After the Wild Things scored their two runs in the second, the Rascals went on to score seven unanswered runs. Alexi Colon and Mike Jurgella each drove in a run in the bottom of the second and River City did the same in the third to take a 6-2 lead and chase Washington's starter, Brian O'Keefe out of the game.

In that third inning, Kyle Gaedele led off with a walk and then with two outs, Robby Enslen and Jason Merjano each notched RBI hits to push the Rascals to their 6-2 lead.

The lefty O'Keefe lasted just three innings giving up six runs on eight hits and dropped his first game of the year.

The Rascals final three runs came home via a three run home run by Robby Enslen in the fifth inning against reliever Matt Snyder to give his team a 9-2 advantage.

"It felt good, the pitcher threw me a pitch I could handle and I was able to put a good swing on it," Enslen said.

Enslen finished with a season high four RBI game and tallied his fourth three hit game of the year.

The Rascals finished with a total of nine runs on eleven hits with Alexi Colon and Mike Jurgella adding two each.

It was the largest amount of run support the Rascals gave right-hander Tim Koons all season and he finished his complete-game allowing the two runs on two hits and struck out five earning his fourth win of the year.

The win also marked Koons's first win since June 28th where he began the year winning three of his first five outings.

Sunday afternoon the Rascals go for a series sweep with Joe Pavlovich on the mound.

"Every win at the end of the season is big, we have been playing good ball the past few days and hopefully we can roll it into Sunday," outfielder Robby Enslen said.

First pitch is scheduled for 4:05 at CarShield Field with Joe Pavlovich on the mound.

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