Rascals 14 Bolts 6
CRESTWOOD, IL – The ThunderBolts allowed season highs in hits (21) and runs as the River City Rascals avoided a sweep with a 14-6 win over the Bolts at Standard Bank Stadium Sunday night.
River City (35-31) began the scoring with a run in the first inning. Curran Redal led off with a single and came in to score on a Taylor Ard base hit.
Ryan Deitrich led off the bottom of the third with a single before Tyler Clark hit his first home run of the year to give the ThunderBolts (27-38) a 2-1 lead.
The Rascals responded immediately with a three-run fourth. Hector Crespo picked up an RBI on a groundout, Zach Kometani had a run-scoring double and Redal made it 4-2 with a fielder’s choice that scored Kometani.
They added five to their lead in the fifth inning, with Kometani delivering the big blow, a two-run homer. Brian Hansen also had an RBI hit in the rally that gave River City a 9-2 advantage.
Austin Gallagher singled and Jacob Tanis singled him in to bring the Bolts to within six, but the Rascals scored another five runs in the eighth. Kometani picked up his fourth and fifth RBIs of the night with a single and Danny Canela hit a two-run double.
Windy City scored three late runs off the Rascals bullpen, starting with one in the eighth on a Marquis Riley sacrifice fly. Coco Johnson drove in a run on his 20th double of the year in the ninth and Gallagher extended his RBI streak to eight games when he singled home Johnson.
Tommy Lawrence (1-0) lasted 5.2 innings and earned the win in his first pro start and Danny Jimenez (3-7) allowed seven runs in 4.2 innings for the loss.
The ThunderBolts will take Monday off before beginning a three-game set with the Gateway Grizzlies on Tuesday at Standard Bank Stadium. All tickets are just $2.00 for the series opener as Travis Tingle (4-5, 3.07) takes the hill against Gateway’s Jordan Ziegler (0-0, 10.38) First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 and the broadcast can be heard on wcthunderbolts.com.
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