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FL River City Rascals

Three Home Runs Power Rascals to Series Win

June 16, 2016 - Frontier League (FL)
River City Rascals News Release


Strong offense late in the game powered the River City Rascals to their tenth road win in their past eleven tries, an 8-5 win over the Normal Cornbelters Wednesday night at Corn Crib Stadium.

Unlike game one in the series, the CornBelters offense was solid early and recorded seven hits and took a lead off of Rascals starter Tim Koons.

Aaron Dudley got them on the board first with a RBI single to score leadoff hitter Santiago Chirino and then following a three up three down in for the Rascals offense in the top of the second, the opponent added three more runs off Koons in his fourth start of the year.

Chirino reached on an infield single to load the bases with no outs and then a ground out gave the CornBelters a 2-0 lead and two batters later Mike Fish put his team up 4-0 with a two RBI single of his own. Out of the seven hits, all were singles and they also reached on a walk and an error in the first two innings.

The CornBelters would only notch four hits the final seven innings and the script flipped as the Rascals offense started to put together some hits.

Johnny Morales set the tone to begin the fourth inning with a solo home run, his first of the year and then there were two runners in scoring position with one out for Mike Jurgella. The catcher recorded a ground out RBI and Griff Gordon doubled one batter later to come within one off the CornBelters starter Max Homick.

"We were behind and needed to start chipping away at their lead. I guessed that he was going to throw me a fastball and I just tried to put a good swing on it and it happened to go out," Morales said. "My main plan was to just get something going and then luckily the guys behind me also hit the ball well and we got a couple more runs that inning."

Normal scored the final run in the contest in their next opportunity with a solo home run from Chirino and then Koons combined with four relievers to get his second win of the year.

Koons was given the win due to a four run inning for his offense in the sixth. Morales came home to score on Jurgella's double and then after Homick walked Gordon, CornBelters manager Brooks Carey went to right-hander Horacio Acosta. On the fourth pitch of the at-bat, Robby Enslen made him pay with his second homer of the year, a three-run shot to put the Rascals on top 7-5.

"He hung me a slider and I took advantage of it," Enslen said. "I was down in the count 0-2 so I was just trying to put the ball in play and I happened to run into one in a key situation."

Homick took the loss as he tossed five 2/3 innings, allowing six runs (4 earned) on five hits and four walks. In his 2016 campaign, the southpaw has given up 24 runs, however just eleven are earned.

After Acosta threw one more inning, Eric Thomas came in and Jurgella hit his third home run of the season to cap off the eight run, nine hit night for the Rascals.

"I had a lot of fun tonight. I was just trying to relax and see the ball well. I felt more comfortable in the box today and hopefully I can keep it rolling," Jurgella said.

Koons was replaced by Michael Gunn in the sixth and Gunn combined with Kennedy to keep the CornBelters in check. Jared Wilson struck out the side on nine pitches in the eighth and then Zac Treece came on for the ninth and picked up his seventh save of the year, a career high.

"Wilson looked awesome tonight, he was on fire with the fastball and everything else was working for him. Our entire bullpen looked great, "said catcher Mike Jurgella.

The Rascals have now won six series on the year and look to earn their fourth sweep of the season Thursday night against the CornBelters with Josh Wright on the mound. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35.

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