Rascals 8 Bolts 4
O’FALLON, MO – The Windy City ThunderBolts suffered their seventh consecutive loss Saturday night as the River City Rascals scored five runs in the first two innings for the second consecutive night, running away with an 8-4 over the Bolts at CarShield Field.
Alexi Colon hit Clay Chapman’s first pitch of the night out of the park for his 16th home run of the year to give the Rascals (42-42) a 1-0 lead.
The ThunderBolts (36-46) responded with two runs in the second. Larry Balkwill doubled and Taylor Smart hit his second home run of the year to give the Bolts their only lead of the night.
River City turned it around with four runs in the bottom of the second. Clint Freeman came up with a two-run double to make the score 3-2. They loaded the bases again and Johnny Morales drove in two more runs on a single.
The game remained 5-2 until the bottom of the sixth. With one out, Robby Enslen doubled and Freeman singled to push the River City lead to 6-2.
In the seventh, three straight two-out hits added two more runs to the Rascals total. Josh Silver doubled, Jason Merjano tripled and Mike Jurgella reached on a bunt single to chase Chapman from the game.
Windy City tried to make a game of it with two runs in the eighth, but the deficit was two big to overcome. Tim Zier and Cody Keefer each singled in that inning and Kyle Wood doubled home two runs, but the scoring would stop there.
Zeb Sneed (7-7) pitched seven-plus innings and struck out nine in the win and Chapman (7-7) took the loss, allowing eight runs on 13 hits in 6.2 innings.
The ThunderBolts and Rascals finish their three-game series on Sunday. Tyler Murphy (2-5, 5.09) gets the start for the Bolts in game three at CarShield Field against River City’s Tim Koons (4-6, 4.54). First pitch is scheduled for 4:05 and the radio broadcast can be heard on WXAV 88.3 FM and wxav.com.
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