(CRESTWOOD, IL) - Windy City extended their home winning streak to 17 games Saturday night as they defeated the Florence Freedom 6-3 in front of 3,181 fans at Standard Bank Stadium. The win gave the ThunderBolts sole possession of first place in the Frontier League East.
Sean Toler set a new high for Frontier League pitchers as he won his seventh straight game, pitching seven strong innings. He allowed two runs on six hits with four strikeouts. The game did not start well for Toler, though. After Billy Mottram and Tim Grogan each singled to start the game, Jimmy Baker’s double scored Mottram and Stephen Shults’s single brought in Grogan, giving the Freedom the early 2-0 lead. Toler got a pop out and a double play to get out of the inning and Florence did not threaten against the right hander again.
The Bolts got on the board in the bottom of the second. With Mike Mooney on third and JT Restko at second and two outs, Nick Kuroczko blooped a single to right scoring them both and tying the game.
Windy City ended up scoring five unanswered runs, including two in the fourth, both on Florence errors. Gilberto Mejia’s sixth inning triple that brought home Jim Calderone gave the ThunderBolts a 5-2 lead.
Justin Pickett hit an RBI single in the eighth to tighten the game a little, but Michael Torres pushed the lead back to three when he singled, moved to second on a sacrifice, stole third and scored on a wild pitch. Greg Johnson got the final five outs for the save.
Sean Toler improved to 7-0 with the win and Ryan Moore allowed three earned runs in 5.1 innings for the loss (0-4).
The Bolts go for the sweep of Florence on Sunday night. Dustin Williams (5-3) will get the start for the ThunderBolts against Florence’s Kevin Whittaker (0-0). The game starts at 6:05.On MDA Jersey off the Back Night, ThunderBolt players will be wearing special jerseys that will be auctioned off following the game. ThunderBolts-Freedom can be heard Sunday night on Sportsjuice.com.
