CRESTWOOD -- Ross Stout spun his fifth complete game of the season and Danny Sawyer capped off a seven-run fifth inning with a two-run homer, leading the Windy City ThunderBolts (43-32) to a 10-3 rout of the visiting River City Rascals (37-39) before a Standard Bank Stadium crowd of 1,397.
Stout (8-3) scattered seven hits and two walks while striking out six in winning his eighth consecutive decision. The Californian right-hander allowed only RBI singles each of the game's final three innings, long after the result had been decided by Windy City's mid-game explosion.
With Windy City leading 3-0 entering the fifth inning, Rascals starter Chris Clem (6-6) walked Mike Sullivan and Mike Coles and gave up a base hit to Phil Hawke to load the bases with no outs.
River City manager Toby Rumfield brought in reliever Tim Stringer, who promptly gave up a Wes Long two-run single and a Josh Horn RBI single before tossing three wild pitches to increase the ThunderBolts' advantage to 8-0.
Two batters later, Sawyer crushed a 3-2 pitch from Stringer over the left field wall to put the game out of reach.
With the victory, the ThunderBolts have won 11 of 12 games and nine consecutive home games. Additionally, Windy City's offense has scored double-digits in runs in five of its last seven games.
The Rascals and ThunderBolts play the second affair of the three-game series at 7:05 p.m. on Wednesday at Standard Bank Stadium. Southpaw Scott Fogelson (4-7, 5.18) will start for River City, opposed by Windy City right-hander Ted Ratliff (2-1, 3.65).
