Wunderlich Shines in Beach Bums Debut
August 2, 2012 - Frontier League (FL)
Traverse City Beach Bums News Release
TRAVERSE CITY, MI - Kurt Wunderlich threw seven stellar innings as the Traverse City Beach Bums downed the Windy City ThunderBolts 3-2 on Thursday night.
Wunderlich, the 2011 Big Ten Pitcher of the Year at Michigan State, started off the game strong, striking out two in the first inning en route to retiring the first 11 ThunderBolt batters in order. His offense got him some support in the second as Kyle Colligan led off with a single, moved to second on an error and took third on his 14th steal of the year. Following a walk to Marcus Nidiffer, Kyle Eveland laid down a perfect suicide squeeze bunt to score Colligan and move Nidiffer to second. Brian Heere stepped to the dish and deposited a single into left; plating Nidiffer for a 2-0 Beach Bums lead.
From there, Wunderlich handled the rest of the work allowing just two singles into the seventh before Chad Cregar led off the frame for Windy City with his 23rd homer of the season to slice the TC lead in half. Wunderlich worked his way out of the inning with no further damage and the Beach Bums would get the run back as Nidiffer led off the bottom of the seventh with his second double of the game. He would move to third on an Eveland sac bunt and score on a wild pitch from Stephen Sauer to put Traverse City up 3-1.
The extra run proved to be big as Brandon Decker led off the top of the eighth with a homerun to pull the ThunderBolts back to within a run. Matt Miller took care of the task at hand, tossing two innings for his fifth save of the year.
Wunderlich (1-0) went seven innings allowing just one run on three hits. He walked one and struck out five. Sauer (6-6) took the loss for Windy City despite allowing just one earned run while throwing his third complete game of the season.
Offensively, Nidiffer had two doubles while Heere and Chase Burch had two hits each.
Traverse City now sees Southern Illinois come to town for an East Division showdown. Friday will be a FANtastic Fireworks Friday with postgame pyrotechnic display lighting up the skies over Wuerfel Park. Brooks Belter (8-1, 3.08) will get the start for the Beach Bums against Cody Hall (5-0, 2.38) for the Miners. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.
Frontier League Stories from August 2, 2012
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- CornBelters drop final game of series - Normal CornBelters
- Wunderlich Shines in Beach Bums Debut - Traverse City Beach Bums
- Boomers Blanked in Finale at Florence - Schaumburg Boomers
- Hawks Shut Out - Rockford RiverHawks
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- August 2 Joliet Slammers Game Notes - Joliet Slammers
- Miners Sign Double A Catcher - Southern Illinois Miners
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