River City Edged by Schaumburg, 4-3
May 24, 2017 - Coastal Plain League (Coastal Plain)
Forest City Owls News Release
River City Edged by Schaumburg, 4-3
(Forest City Owls)
RIVER CITY EDGED BY SCHAUMBURG, 4-3
River CIty (4-6) held the lead on two separate occasions but failed to hold on to their advantage in a 4-3 loss to the Schaumburg Boomers (7-3), Wednesday afternoon in game one of the three game series at Boomers Stadium in Schaumburg, Illinois.
The defeat marked the first loss of the year for the Rascals in a series opener and fell a season low two games under the .500 mark with their fifth loss in the past six games.
River City grabbed the lead against Boomers starter Lars Liguori in the first inning as leadoff hitter Brandon Thomas drew his team leading tenth walk of the year and then stole his way into second and eventually reached third with one out on a groundout to the right side.
Boomers 6th manager Jaime Bennett pulled the infield in trying to hold Thomas where he was but a groundout from Josh Silver brought Thomas across the plate anyways to give the Rascals a 1-0 lead.
The starting pitcher for the Rascals was southpaw Hector Hernandez and he lived dangerously for the entire first inning, allowing eight guys to come up to the plate despite just one hit.
Hernandez walked three of his first four batters to load the bases and then although he was able to record his second out with a grounder to third that got a force out at the plate, Hernandez hit his next batter Kenny Towns in the foot to tie the game at one. The lone hit of the inning followed, an infield it, to put the Boomers on top 2-1.
The pair of runs were the first time Hernandez allowed a run in the first inning through his first three starts.
The Rascals responded in the fifth inning with two on and one out as the team leader in batting average Mike Jurgella laced a two RBI double to retake the one-run lead and put Hernandez back in line for his first win of the year.
However, once again, the lead was lost and it marked the 4th time in the past four games that the Rascals lost the lead in the fifth inning or later.
This time around, the first two reached via the walk and a single from Seth Spivey loaded the bases with no outs and chased Hernandez from the game.
Manager Steve Brook called upon Matt Chavarria and although a run came across to score to tie it at three, he issued a double play to give his team the chance to get out of the inning without losing the lead.
However, two pitches later, the right-hander threw a wild pitch with a runner on third that lost the lead and scored the winning run for the Boomers.
"We were awful on a lot of fronts today, the wind was blowing straight in with a huge zone and we walked six and struck out one,"Â Brook said. "We got a lead and gave it right back which has been a similar story in four of our six losses which have come by one run."
River City remained in the game as relievers Jordan Brink and Nate Hoffmann kept the Boomers bat at bay and then the Rascals had the tying run on base twice in the ninth inning against Boomers closer Jake Joyce. Joyce was helped along by James Keller, who cut down Johnny Morales trying to steal second and then after a Clint Freeman single, Keller made a play in front of home plate on a grounder off of Jimmy Kerrigan's bat to end the game.
"We are struggling with guys on base, me included. I had guys on second and third earlier today and didn't get them in,"Â Freeman said. "Our hitters are going to come around, our lineup is really good and we have confidence with every guy that comes up to the plate. You have to go game- by-game and keep battling, if we keep doing that we will eventually put more runs up on the board."
Hernandez received the loss, his second of the year, allowing four runs, earned, on five hits and five walks and Boomers starter Ligouri took his first win of 2017. Ligouri hurled six innings allowing three runs, earned, on five hits and fanned two.
Offensively, Josh Ludy and Clint Freeman had two hits apiece and Freeman is now 12 for 19 in his career against the Boomers.
"Sometimes you have a lot of success against a team but then there are other times when you hit the ball really hard against someone but you can't catch a break,"Â Freeman said. "I guess you can say the Boomers is where I catch the most breaks."
The season continues Thursday night as the Rascals can get back to .500 with doubleheader sweep beginning at 5:00 in Schaumburg. Tim Koons will start game one and Dan Ludwig in the series finale.
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