Zablan Pitches Eight; Earns First Win as Starter
June 2, 2012 - Frontier League (FL)
River City Rascals News Release
O'Fallon, Mo. - For the second straight night the Rascals got a much needed quality start from an unsuspecting source and rolled to an 8-2 win over the Otters as Keli'i Zablan, who had never pitched over three innings, sliced through the Evansville lineup for eight innings with just five singles allowed and one run allowed, scored by the first batter of the game.
Evansville (5-9) took a 1-0 lead on a two out single from Nick Schwaner but the Rascals responded with a leadoff homerun from Eric Williams in the first, his first big fly since 2009 and just the second of his career, to tie the game at one.
The Rascals (12-2) exploded in the third inning with six runs on five hits, including four straight, the last a Bobby Burk three-run homerun that took the life out of the Otters who came in averaging 3.5 runs per game, 12th in the 14-team Frontier League.
River City added another run in the fourth on a sacrifice fly from Gerardo Avila to stretch the lead to 8-1 and would be all Zablan would need, setting down the final 10 he faced in order before giving way to Brandon Cunniff in the ninth.
Evansville would add a run off Cunniff on a Nick Schwaner homer, his third hit of the game.
The Rascals will go for the sweep on Sunday with first pitch set for 6:05 CT. Rookie Jason Sullivan (2-0, 0.00) makes his second start for River City against the Otters' second-year lefty Matt Zielinski (1-1, 1.06).
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Frontier League Stories from June 2, 2012
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