Slammers 6 Bolts 5
JOLIET, IL – The ThunderBolts lost a late lead for the fourth time in their last five games as the Joliet Slammers scored three runs in the ninth to hand the Bolts their fifth straight loss, 6-5 at Silver Cross Field Friday night.
Windy City took an early lead and held it for most of the night after Ryan Soares hit a two-run homer in the first.
Joliet quickly answered with a Grant DeBruin sacrifice fly in the bottom of the inning to cut the lead in half.
From that point, the starting pitchers took over. Daniel Cropper did not allow another run in his six innings of work and left the ballgame with the lead. Meanwhile, Andrew Busby tossed five straight scoreless frames for the Slammers before the Bolts got to him again in the seventh. Evan Button singled and Mike Torres walked in front of Kyle Robinson, whose three-run home run made it 5-1.
That was the score into the bottom of the eighth, when Reese McGraw came out of the ThunderBolts bullpen and walked Chris Epps and Russ Moldenhauer. They both scored on an Adam Giacalone double to make it 5-3.
In the ninth, Seth Granger hit a leadoff single and advanced on a wild pitch. He scored when Adam Lewis reached on an error. Lewis was bunted to second before he moved to third on another wild pitch. Epps walked and stole second before the third wild pitch of the inning scored Lewis to tie the score. With two outs, DeBruin singled home Epps to win the game.
Sam Moore (2-3) pitched a scoreless ninth for the win and Danny Carela (1-1) lost the lead for the loss.
The ThunderBolts will continue their three-game set with the Slammers at Silver Cross Field on Saturday. Jake Fisher (2-6, 4.98) will start for the Bolts against Joliet’s Kody McFarland (2-1, 4.53). Saturday’s game is scheduled for 6:05 and the broadcast can be heard on meridix.com.
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