Wild Things Plate Five Runs in the Ninth to Take Series Opener
Published on July 18, 2018 under Frontier League (FL)
Normal CornBelters News Release
Normal CornBelters pitcher Mark Hendricks
(Normal CornBelters)
NORMAL, Ill. - After earning the first sweep at home this season, the Normal CornBelters (25-27) took the lead in the eighth, but the Washington Wild Things (31-24) put up five runs in the ninth to take the series opener 6-2 on Tuesday night.
"We did not execute and take advantage tonight. We left too many men on base and unfortunately we could not hold the lead tonight," said Manager Billy Horn.
After sliding into the rotation, Mark Hendricks continued to be dominant throwing six shutout innings. Early on, he worked out of a threat in the first, rolling a 6-4-3 double play and picking up his first strikeout. The righty then went on to retire the Wild Things in order the next three innings. While dealt with the no-decision, Hendricks went six full for the second start in a row and set a new career high in strikeouts with nine while lowering his ERA to 2.77 in his first season at Normal.
Both teams threw shutout ball until the seventh inning. The Wild Things got to Miles Moller who was the first Belter out of the bullpen to go up 1-0 on a pair of hits. Chris Irairt then launched his league-leading 16th home run to tie the game 1-1.
In the eighth, Normal got of a huge jam. Thomas Nicoll gave up a double and then struck out the Washington leadoff man to end his outing. Anthony Herrera (5-3) came in and gave up a single to put runners on the corners with one out. He battled and got out of the inning to preserve the tie. The CornBelters used the momentum to take their first lead of the game in the bottom half. Sam Vega pinched hit to leadoff and singled. The former NIU Huskie got to third eventually off a sac bunt by Justin Fletcher and then a balk by the opposing pitcher. Mr. Clutch, Santiago Chirino came through and single to give Normal a 2-1 lead and head into the ninth.
The Wild Things got to Herrera in the ninth and brought in five runs to take a 6-2 lead that required Tyler Frohwirth to get out of the inning. Prior to tonight, Herrera had not let up a run in 8.1 innings and only allowed three hits in that stretch.
"Herrera has been outstanding for us all year and sometimes it happens. We still have all the confidence in the world in him but tonight just wasn't his night. He is still our closer and I will give him the ball ten out of ten times in that situation."
Normal showed life in the ninth and loaded the bases with two outs, but couldn't rally and fell in the series opener to Washington. Tomorrow the Belters look to even the series with first pitch at 7:05 p.m.
"Tip your To Mark Hendricks for pitched a fantastic game. Really battled and had very electric stuff tonight. Bozman has the ball tomorrow and we expect a similar outing out of him and hopefully, we can just capitalize on mistakes just like they did tonight."
Images from this story
 Normal CornBelters pitcher Mark Hendricks |
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