FL Joliet Slammers

Slammers Early Lead Erased in 8-5 Loss

Published on July 10, 2015 under Frontier League (FL)
Joliet Slammers News Release


Joliet, IL- A five-run fourth inning and a four-hit day from their number eight hitter, Brian Portelli, propels the Southern Illinois Miners (31-18) to an 8-5 win over the Joliet Slammers (21-28) on Friday night.

The Miners scored first with a long ball in the third inning. Portelli blasted a fastball from pitcher Andrew Strenge over the centerfield fence. The rookie's fourth home run of the year put the Miners up 1-0.

The Slammers had a breakout inning against reigning Frontier League Pitcher of the Week Adam Lopez in the third. 2B Max Casper led off the inning with a single. CF Charlie was plunked putting two on. LF Phil Bates hit a sharp grounder to short. SS Niko Vasquez flipped to the 2B Frank Martinez, but Martinez dropped the ball, loading the bases with no outs. SS Alfredo Rodriguez singled to drive in Casper and a 3B Mike Garza corked a bloop single to right. His hit drove in White and Bates, putting Joliet on top 3-1. The Slammers would reload the bases with two outs, and 1B Adam Giacalone walked to make the score 4-1 in favor of the Slammers after three.

The Miners responded with five runs in the fourth inning, running Strenge from the game. Martinez singled and DH Jerrud Sabourin doubled to drive him in. A 1B Joe Rapp single scored Sabourin, trimming the Slammers lead to one run. With one out, Portelli singled to put two on. A wild pitched scored a run while a sacrifice fly brought in another. It was 6-5 Miners after the top half of the fourth inning.

After the Slammers put a pair on in the fifth but couldn't score, good pitching dominated the game. Three different relievers combined to blank the Slammers in innings six, seven and eight. Reliever Kevin McNorton shut down the Miners for 2 2/3 innings before passing the ball off to Sam Moore in the eighth.

The Miners added a pair of insurance runs against Moore in the ninth. Vasquez led off with a single and Martinez walked. Sabourin singled to load the bases. Vasquez would score on a fielder's choice ground out while Martinez would come across on a Portelli base-knock, pushing the Miners lead to 8-5 after the ninth.

The Slammers threatened in the bottom half of the inning. White singled with one out and Bates reached on an error. With a pair aboard, SS Alfredo Rodriguez hit a ground ball to Vasquez at short. Playing behind second base, Vasquez fielded the ground ball and stepped on the bag. But his throw to first was off line and banged of the Slammers dugout. With the play now behind him, Rodriguez took off for second base. The baseball quickly rolled back to the first baseman Joe Rapp, who turned and tossed the ball to second in plenty of time to retire Rodriguez, giving the Miners the 8-5 win.

Adam Lopez (7-0) picked up the victory while Andrew Strenge (4-5) took the loss. The Slammers will be back in action against the Miners on Friday with the first pitch at 6:05pmCT. You can catch the game live on http://www.ustream.tv/channel/slammervision.

Notes: The Slammers became the first team to score more than two runs off Adam Lopez this year...Casey Fletcher's double in the second inning was his first hit since June 24th... After only scoring three runs in their entire series against the Miners, the Slammers erupted for five runs in the third inning against Southern Illinois...Kevin McNorton, David Kubiak and Navery Moore have combined to throw 17 2/3 straight scoreless innings.... The five innings pitched by the Lopez was his shortest outing of the year.

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