Ricky Meinhold pitched seven strong innings and the Windy City ThunderBolts capitalized on three Gateway Grizzlies errors as the Bolts won their third straight, downing the Grizzlies 9-4.
The ThunderBolts got on the board in the second inning as Kraig Binick hit a sacrifice fly to bring home J. T. Restko who had doubled to lead off the inning. The Bolts would open up their lead in the third inning as after loading up the bases, Robert Perry reached on a fielder’s choice. On the play Gateway second baseman Alex Kerins threw the ball into leftfield, allowing two runs to score and making it 3-0. Another ground ball off the bat of Pete Paris scored Gilberto Mejia for a 4-0 WC advantage. Two more runs would come in as with Pete Paris on third and Bryan Cook on second, Grizzlies Danny Morrow threw a ball wide of first base, bringing in both runners, giving the Bolts a 6-0 lead.
Gateway would get two in the fifth inning on an RBI double from Jon Quigley and a throwing error by the Bolts to pull to within 6-2. Windy City would get the runs back and then some as with two outs in the sixth, the ThunderBolts loaded up the bases before Robert Perry roped a 3-2 pitch from Mark Brackman down the rightfield line for a bases clearing triple and a 9-2 WC lead.
The Grizzlies would plate two more in the eighth on an RBI double by Charlie Lisk and a wild pitch to pull to within 9-4, but that was as close as they would get as the Windy City bullpen finished things off.
The bullpen work came in support of Ricky Meinhold (1-0) who pitched seven strong innings allowing four hits and one earned run. He walked one and struck out four. Mark Brackman (4-8) took the loss for Gateway surrendering nine runs, only two of them earned in seven innings.
The series concludes on Thursday with Sean Heimpel (1-5, 8.39) on the mound for Windy City against Gateway’s Christian Castorri (1-1, 6.23). It is a Bud Light Thirsty Thursday with 12 oz domestic draft beers costing just $1. For information or tickets, call 708-489-BALL or visit the team’s website at
www.wcthunderbolts.com
