CRESTWOOD, IL – The ThunderBolts scored 12 runs on 14 hits and cruised to a victory Friday night, 12-1 over the River City Rascals at Standard Bank Stadium. It was the ThunderBolts biggest margin of victory this year.
Windy City took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Evan Button reached on an error and eventually scored on a Ryan Soares sacrifice fly.
They added three more in the second despite not hitting the ball out of the infield. Two infield singles, three walks and an error contributed to the three-run rally. Button had an RBI walk and Mike Torres drove in a run on a base hit.
The Rascals scored their only run in the top of the third. Eric Williams walked and scored on a Johnny Morales groundout, cutting the Bolts lead to 4-1.
That was as close as River City would get. In the bottom of the fifth, after a33-minute lightning delay, the Bolts broke the game open, scoring three runs. Torres and Soares had back-to-back singles and Torres scored on a wild pitch. Chad Cregar walked and Zach Aakhus brought home Soares on a groundout. Cregar scored on one of Andrew Brauer’s three hits.
The ThunderBolts scored seven runs on just five hits, all singles, through five innings, but the bats really came to life in the sixth. With two outs and a man on first, Soares and Cregar hit back-to-back doubles. Aakhus’s RBI base hit, scoring Cregar, made it 10-1.
Cregar added the exclamation point in the eighth, hitting a two run homer, his second home run in as many days.
Brian Oliver’s day was cut short by the delay, but he did not allow an earned run in five innings and improved to 4-6 with the victory. Ray Hanson (2-1) pitched four innings and took the loss.
The ThunderBolts begin a three-game road series in Joliet Saturday night against the Slammers. Windy City will start Travis Tingle (3-5, 3.96) in game one against Andrew Busby (0-2, 3.38). First pitch from Silver Cross Field is scheduled for 6:05 and the broadcast can be heard on WXAV, 88.3 FM and wxav.com.
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