MARION, IL – The Southern Illinois Miners scored five runs in the fourth inning on their way to a 7-2 victory over the Windy City ThunderBolts at Rent One Park Friday night.
The Miners jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the second on an RBI single from Carlos Mendez. They padded their advantage in the big fourth inning. Javier Herrera led off with a solo homer. Later in the frame, Chad Maddox singled and Jason Ganek reached on an error. Carlos Mendez walked to load the bases and the Miners scored four runs on an RBI single from Chris Anderson and a three-run triple off the bat of Cannon Lester.
Dustin Williams, pitching in relief, shut down the Miners offense until the eighth, but Windy City had trouble getting baserunners against David Harden. Mike Torres singled to lead off the seventh. He moved up on a passed ball and a wild pitch and scored on a Chad Cregar groundout.
The next inning, Bob Glover doubled and Brandon Pearl singled to put two men on base before C.J. Gillman singled to knock in Glover. That would be all the Bolts got, though, as they stranded runners at second and third for the second time in the game.
Another Mendez RBI single in the bottom of the eighth put the game away at 7-2.
Harden (10-4) went 7.2 innings to take the win while Sauer (7-7) couldn’t make it out of the fourth in the loss.
The Bolts will continue their series with Southern Illinois on Saturday night. Mike Recchia (11-3, 2.77)) will start game two for the ThunderBolts against The Miners’ Daniel Calhoun (6-4, 2.80). The game is scheduled to begin at 7:05 at Rent One Park and the broadcast can be heard on sportsjuice.com.
