A ninth inning rally came up just short for the Windy City ThunderBolts as they fell to the Traverse City Beach Bums 4-3.
Traverse City put the first run of the game on the board in the bottom of the second inning as Anthony D’Alfonso hit his first professional homer to put the Beach Bums up 1-0.
Windy City would knot it up in the fourth as with one out Gilberto Mejia smacked his fifth homer of the season to rightfield, tying the game at 1-1.
The Beach Bums would retake the lead in the fifth as the first four batters reached, highlighted by a two-run homer by Andrew Franco. Traverse City would score three runs in the frame, putting TC up 4-1.
The game would stay 3-1 until the top of the ninth inning when the Bolts cooked up a two out rally. Nate Hall doubled and pinch-hitter Wilson Matos singled to put runners on the corners. Tyler Farrar came up and on the first pitch, tripled into right-centerfield off the glove of Mike Epping, scoring Hall and Matos to cut the lead to 4-3. At that point, Traverse City called on closer Jeff Williams who was able to strikeout Dan Jordan for the final out of the game.
Kevin Reese (5-3) picked up the win, tossing eight innings of one run ball. Williams recorded his 13th save. Ross Stout (6-2) took the loss for Windy City.
Windy City now travels to Kalamazoo for a three game series. Tyler Kelsey (4-3, 3.47) gets the ball for the ThunderBolts in game one against Joe DiPietro (3-4, 3.99) for the Kings. The game is set for 6:05 p.m. with coverage on WXAV beginning at 5:45. For information or tickets, call 708-489-BALL stop by the Standard Bank Stadium ticket office or go to the team’s website at
www.wcthunderbolts.com.
