ThunderBolts Drop Dramatic Series Finale to Florence
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CRESTWOOD, Ill. – In a game that featured plenty of offense early and plenty of pitching late, the Windy City ThunderBolts dropped the rubber match to the Florence Y’alls Sunday evening 10-8 at Ozinga Field.
Florence (25-21) kicked off the early scoring party with a four-spot in the top of the first inning on the back of three hits and two free passes.
Windy City (24-22) responded in the home half of the first in a hurry on a leadoff solo blast to left field off the bat of Michael Sandle.
The Y’alls posted another crooked number in the top of the second, scoring five runs off a pair of home runs from Brendan Bobo and Zade Richardson to open an early 9-1 lead.
The Bolts clawed back into the game in the home half of the third inning, scoring six runs on the back of seven consecutive two-out base runners.
Justin Fogel singled and Jared Beebe doubled in front of a Carlos Pena three-run homer to cut into the deficit initially. Then, Liam McArthur plated Victor Cerny and Daryl Ruiz with a bases clearing double before James Dunlap capped off the six-run frame with an RBI base hit to cut the Florence lead to 9-7.
From then on, both offenses settled down. It wasn’t until the top of the seventh that either team got back in the run column.
After the Y’alls added a run of insurance in the top of the seventh inning, the ThunderBolts took a 10-7 deficit into the bottom of the ninth inning.
Pena led off the ninth with a walk and eventually came around to score on Dunlap’s second RBI base knock of the ball game. Then, with the tying run aboard, pinch-hitter Robbie Ayers went down on strikes to end the Bolts’ hopes of a comeback.
Logan Jones (3-1) picked up the win for Florence, pitching 2.1 innings of scoreless baseball out of the bullpen. ThunderBolt starter Blake Nettleton (0-2) was hit with the loss. He allowed nine runs on eight hits in four innings of work. Although it wasn’t clean, Aiden McEvoy notched his league-leading 11th save of the season.
The ThunderBolts return to action Friday for the first of a three-game series against the Lake Erie Crushers. Liam Hohenstein (0-1, 5.94) gets the starting nod for the Bolts against Lake Erie’s Fraynel Nova (1-6, 6.65). First pitch is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. CDT and broadcast information is available at wcthunderbolts.com.
