FL Joliet Slammers

Slammers Rally Late to Beat Beach Bums

Published on August 1, 2011 under Frontier League (FL)
Joliet Slammers News Release


(Joliet, IL) - David Fox singled in two runs to cap off a four run seventh inning as the Joliet Slammers (37-28) earned their 21 st comeback win of the year in a 6-4 victory over the Traverse City Beach Bums (34-32) Monday afternoon.

Kevin Crimmel (4-3) pitched well to get the win as he made a spot start with Andrew Moss pushed back a day after his no-hitter. The rookie out of Villanova went seven innings, giving up four runs, three earned, on five hits, walking no one, and striking out a season high eight.

But it was the Beach Bums taking the early lead as they got two runs in the first. With one out Matt Brown reached on an infield single. Jose Vargas singled him to third, bringing the dangerous J.T. Hall to the plate. Hall singled to right-center, driving in Brown. Vargas tried to take third on the play and Bobby Leeper's throw scooted past Sean Estand into the dugout, allowing Vargas to score and Hall to advance to third. Crimmel got out of the inning with no further damage by striking out the last two hitters.

Down 2-0, the Slammers couldn't get much offense going for the first few innings against Bryan Banes. Traverse City tacked on one more in the fourth as Jeff Flagg doubled with one away. A wild pitch moved him to third and he scored on a Greg Burns sacrifice fly.

Joliet finally started to make a push in the fifth. With two outs and nobody on, Bobby Leeper bunted his way to first. After Josh Flores drew a walk, Saint Francis alum. Brad Netzel singled in Leeper to cut the deficit to 3-1. Then with runners at the corners, Netzel stole second. On the throw to second base Flores raced home and the Slammers pulled off a double steal and pulled to within one of Traverse City.

A Flagg home run off Crimmel in the seventh gave the Beach Bums a 4-2 lead, but the bottom half of the frame would be their undoing.

Against reliever Scott Reid (0-2), Trey Manz drew a walk. Then Leeper hit what appeared to be a routine double play ball that Hector Bernal booted and everyone was safe. Flores showed why he's the fastest player in the league as he beat out what was supposed to be a sacrifice bunt. With the bases loaded and nobody out Netzel came up huge again with a game tying single to left. He would steal second and with one away the Beach Bums intentionally walked Erik Lis. David Fox, who had been in quite the slump entering the game, broke out of it in a big way with a sharp single up the gut, scoring two runs and putting the Slammers up 6-4.

It would stay that way...barely. Chuck Lukanen had some trouble in the eighth as he gave up a single and a walk. After a sacrifice bunt moved both runners over, Bart Zeller called on Brian Smith to get Jose Vargas out. He would do just that and more as Vargas lined a ball right to Hector Pellot at second, who caught it and dived to the bag to turn the unassisted double play and end the inning.

Joliet native Ryan Quigley had no trouble nailing down his league leading 20 th save in the ninth.

With the win the Slammers have matched their season high of 2.5 games up in the East Division of the Windy City ThunderBolts. Traverse City falls to 3.5 back.

Joliet heads to Sauget, IL to take on the Gateway Grizzlies for the first time this season. First pitch Tuesday night is at 7:05 p.m. Central Time as Andrew Moss (3-3, 3.67 ERA) looks to follow up his no-hitter with another strong performance. Tune in starting at 6:50 on AM 1340 WJOL and www.wjol.com for all the action.

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Frontier League Stories from August 1, 2011


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