Strong pitching carries Roosters to victories

June 19, 2005 - Frontier League (FL)
Richmond Roosters News Release


Kalamazoo, Michigan - The Roosters scored six unanswered runs after the third inning in a 6-2 win over Kalamazoo on Saturday. The Kings scored both of their runs early in the game but were shutout over that last six innings as Richmond went on to win its second game in a row. Chris Mongiardo earned his 102nd win as Manager, tying him for the 2nd most wins in Roosters history. Ironically, Mongiardo tied Fran Riordan, who is now the Kings Manager. Riordan and Mongiardo coached together on the 2001 and 2002 Frontier League Championship teams in Richmond. John Cate is the all-time leader with 165 victories as the Roosters Manager.

Tony Casoli made his fifth start of year for the Roosters on Saturday. He came in to the game leading the Frontier League with 34 strikeouts. Casoli pitched 6 2/3 innings, struck out only two, but gave up just the two runs to get his third win. The Kings got the scoring underway with runs in both the second and third innings. The run in the second scored on an error while the run in the third scored on a RBI single by Kalamazoo's right fielder, Pete Pirman, for a 2-0 lead. Richmond relied on the long ball to rally back and take the lead from the Kings. Joe Cuervo led off the fourth inning with his second home run of the year to cut the lead to 2-1. Mike Reese then homered in the fifth scoring Joe Rhomberg to give the Roosters a 3-2 lead. The homers were the second of the season for both Cuervo and Reese.

Matt Schweitzer came on in relief of Casoli in the seventh inning. With runners at first and second and only one out, Schweitzer got Pirman to fly out and Tim Brown to strike out to end the inning and preserve the lead for Richmond. Josh Hollingsworth continued slugging the ball by getting his 10th home run of the year in the eighth to score Kevin White and increase Richmond's lead to 5-2. That home run breaks the tie with Mike Galloway of the Florence Freedom for league leader in homers. The Roosters have now hit ten home runs in the last four games and are 2nd in the Frontier League with 29 total home runs. The Roosters added an insurance run in the ninth when Ty Herriott scored on a sacrifice fly from Nate Gravely. Dan Caldwell pitched the ninth for Richmond to close out the game.

Richmond (9-14) and Kalamazoo (14-9) finish the series on Sunday. Chad Clark (0-2, 6.33) will get the start for the Kings while Curt Moenter (1-1, 2.45) goes for the Roosters. Game time is set for 4:35pm (Indiana time).



Frontier League Stories from June 19, 2005


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