Miners 10 Bolts 9
MARION, IL – The ThunderBolts erased a five-run deficit to force extra innings but lost to the Southern Illinois Miners 10-9 in ten innings on an Aaron Gates walk-off double.
The Miners (34-19) scored two runs in the first inning with RBI hits from Niko Vasquez and Frank Martinez, but the ThunderBolts (19-32) scored three straight runs to take the lead. Ryan Deitrich hit a two-run homer in the second and Austin Gallagher hit an RBI double in the third.
Southern Illinois chased Travis Tingle from the game with a six-run third inning that featured six hits. Vasquez hit an RBI double, Martinez had an RBI single and both Steve Marino and Eric Strano drove in two runs on their base hits.
The Bolts fought back as Deitrich hit his second home run of the game, a solo shot in the fourth. They added three more in the sixth. After loading the bases on a single and two walks, Windy City got a run on a Larry Balkwill sacrifice fly. Coco Johnson’s two-run triple made it 8-7.
The Miners got a run back on a Gates single in the sixth, but the ThunderBolts had one more rally in them. Gallagher and Jacob Tanis each reached to begin the ninth and moved ahead on a bunt. Max White’s groundout scored Gallagher and, with two outs, Ransom LaLonde tied the game with an RBI single.
Balkwill led off the tenth with a double but was left at third before Southern Illinois came up in the bottom of the inning. Brian Portelli hit a leadoff single and scored from second with two outs on Gates’s double to make it a 10-9 final.
Pete Perez (2-2) blew the save but pitched two innings for the win. Joel Lima (2-2) allowed a run in 1.2 innings for the loss.
The ThunderBolts and Miners will conclude their series on Sunday evening with at Rent One Park. Jake Fisher (2-4, 4.72) will start for Windy City against Southern Illinois’s Matt Bywater (6-2, 2.41). First pitch is scheduled for 5:05 and the broadcast can be heard on WXAV 88.3 FM and wxav.com.
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