FL River City Rascals

Rascals Win Fourth Straight Behind Solid Pitching

Published on June 3, 2016 under Frontier League (FL)
River City Rascals News Release


River City Rascals Pitcher Josh Wright
River City Rascals Pitcher Josh Wright
(River City Rascals, Credit: Ricky Rick Photography)

A fourth consecutive strong performance by the team's starting pitcher and a two RBI double from Griff Gordon powered the River City Rascals to a 5-1 victory Friday night on the road against the Schaumburg Boomers. With the win, the Rascals set a season long four game winning streak and are four games over the .500 mark for the first time this year.

Josh Wright got the start for River City and he was solid in his first road start in the Frontier League. The righty kept the Boomers off the scoreboard in the first five innings while allowing just two hits and struck out four. He retired the side in order twice and the game was scoreless going into the sixth.

"It was a lot of fun. I know I have a great team behind me every time I lace them up and it is a great feeling going out there knowing everyone is playing for the guy next to him," Wright said. "I just let my defense work and I think that's where a lot of my success came from."

"Josh battled and got us big outs when he needed to. He had a couple baserunners that could have scored early on but he was able to strand them," manager Steve Brook said. "He gave us five plus which is what we needed and then we had some bullpen guys come in and do well. It was a good night all around."

Going up against Wright was Boomers starter Kagen Hopkins. Hopkins allowed five singles and got into the most trouble in the third inning when Dominique Taylor and Jason Merjano notched back-to-back hits. However, Johnny Morales grounded into a double play and the game remained knotted at zeros. Hopkins went on to exchange scoreless innings with Wright the next two innings and then he did not come back out for the sixth.

Boomers manager Jamie Bennet went to his newest member, A.J. Quintero, who was signed on June 2nd. He retired the first two hitters of the sixth inning and then Josh Silver extended it with his second hit of the game. Josh Ludy followed that up with a walk and then Josh Silver stole third when Robby Enslen was at the plate and moved 90 feet closer to scoring the Rascals first run of the game. Enslen proceeded to hit a ground ball deep in the infield and it caused the shortstop Josh Gardiner to bobble it and Silver came into score.

The Boomers would answer though with their best inning of the night and it began with a triple from Gardiner which chased Wright out of the game. Manager Steve Brook went to Will Schierholz and he was unable to strand the runner at third. The Rascals righty allowed a single to the first batter he faced, Jordan Dean, and it tied the game at one. Dean would be thrown out trying to extend it into a double and then Schierholz allowed two more singles to put the go-ahead run in scoring position.

That was the end of the line for Schierholz as Michael Gunn came in to face the lefty Paul Kronenfeld and Reese Gregory was called upon against the righty Chris Robinson. Both pitchers got a strikeout and the game remained tied at one.

"I have always been a situational guy depending on the circumstances and we have some very good righty-righty guys and some very good lefty-lefty guys," Brook said. "We play the percentages when we can and even when someone didn't get it done tonight the guy behind them was able to pick them up and it was really nice to see."

Quintero (Boomers) and Gregory each retired the side in order in the seventh and then the score would change in the eighth as the Rascals had five consecutive players reach. All with one out against a new reliever, Johnny Morales doubled, Silver walked and Ludy was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Patrick Dolan hit Robby Enslen with the next pitch to drive in the go-ahead run and then Silver came into score one pitch later on a wild pitch. When Dolan came in the strike zone, Gordon ripped a two run double and the Rascals would hold the 5-1 lead the rest of the night.

"I was just trying to stay within the middle of the field and drive the ball, I got a good pitch to hit and the result was good," Gordon said. "We have a lot of momentum right now and hopefully we can keep it going."

Gregory, Lucas Laster, Nick Kennedy and Zac Treece combined to throw the final two innings and kept the Boomers off the board. Gregory finished with three strikeouts in two innings and picked up his first career win. Closer Zac Treece struck out two in the ninth and has struck out a team leading 21 batters.

During the four game winning streak, the Rascals pitching staff has allowed just seven runs on 22 hits in 36 innings. The pitching staff has struck out 37 compared to ten walks and have only made one error during the road trip.

"That's one of things that I try to build this team on. Pitchers who throw strikes, guys who can field all the way around and guys that can run. It's a fun and exciting team and our guys our feeling really good right now after winning four straight on the road in two tough ballparks," Brook said.

The Rascals look to win their fifth straight tomorrow as the series with Schaumburg continues at 6:00. Tim Koons will be making his second start of the year and the game can be heard on rascals.caster.fm.

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Images from this story

River City Rascals Pitcher Josh Wright
River City Rascals Pitcher Josh Wright
(Ricky Rick Photography)		   



Frontier League Stories from June 3, 2016


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