River City Sweeps With Extra-Inning Win
July 20, 2011 - Frontier League (FL)
Normal CornBelters News Release
NORMAL - The Normal CornBelters, presented by Illinois Corn Farmers, forced extra innings with a late run in the eighth, but dropped a 5-3 decision to the River City Rascals Wednesday night at the Corn Crib. With the win, River City (38-15) sweeps the series and remains the top team in the West Division. Normal (27-27) is now 1-5 against the Rascals this season.
With a 3-3 tie after nine innings, River City scored the winning run in the 10th with three consecutive hits off of Marshall Schuler. Joash Brodin doubled with one out, and advanced to third when Chad Maddox followed with a single. Danny Sawyer then drove home a run with another single, and Eric Williams did the same two batters later to put the Rascals on top 5-3.
Schuler (L, 1-1) pitched two innings of relief, and had previously stranded the go-ahead run at third base in the 9th. Derrick Miramontes (W, 5-0) earned the win for River City with 1.2 innings of relief. Brandon Cunniff recorded his 10th save after a 1-2-3 10th inning.
The Rascals loaded the bases with a single and two walks off of Lester in the 1st inning. Joash Brodin hit a sacrifice fly to center field allowing Chris McClendon to score from third for a 1-0 lead. However, Lester stranded the bases loaded to hold River City to just one run.
River City held the lead until the bottom of the 4th when Normal's offense broke through against Lowey. A leadoff single from Frank Martinez set the table for Asif Shah, who belted a two-run shot to right field to give Normal the lead 2-1.
That lead was short-lived, as River City countered with two runs in the top of the 5th. McClendon led off with a single, but was picked off by Jeff Dunbar as he attempted a steal of second base. The extra out proved costly for River City, as Doug Sanders walked before Stephen Holdren hit a two-run home run to put the Rascals back out front 3-2. Lester limited the damage once again, leaving two Rascals in scoring position to end the inning.
Normal evened the score in the 8th against the River City bullpen. Martinez walked and moved to third on a single by Shah. With one out, Daniel Cox lined an RBI single to right that plated Martinez for a 3-3 score.
Lester tossed six innings for a no-decision, allowing six hits and three earned runs while striking out four. Jacob Liedka came on in relief of Lester and pitched two scoreless innings. River City's Josh Lowey also picked up a no-decision after allowing seven hits and striking out eight before being pulled with one out in the 7th.
The CornBelters host the Evansville Otters for a three-game series beginning Thursday at 7 p.m. Ryan Sheldon (6-4, 2.96) gets the start for Normal against Kyle Barry (2-3, 5.14) of Evansville.
• Discuss this story on the Frontier League message board...
Frontier League Stories from July 20, 2011
- Miners Top Grizzlies in 12 - Southern Illinois Miners
- Miners Get Walk off Extra Inning Win Against Grizzlies - Gateway Grizzlies
- Extra Innings Not Kind to Slammers - Joliet Slammers
- Evansville Earns First Sweep In Extra Innings Victory - Evansville Otters
- Beach Bums Rally in 10-9 Thriller - Traverse City Beach Bums
- Rascals Win in Tenth - River City Rascals
- River City Sweeps With Extra-Inning Win - Normal CornBelters
- Otters Sweep Freedom in Extra Innings - Florence Y'alls
- Wild Things Fall to Beach Bums - Washington Wild Things
- First Place Slammers Return to Silver Cross Field Thursday - Joliet Slammers
- Crushers Sweep RiverHawks - Lake Erie Crushers
- Crushers Sweep RiverHawks - Rockford RiverHawks
- July 20 Joliet Slammers Game Notes - Joliet Slammers
The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.
