(ROCHESTER, MI) – Jeremy Jones hit a two-out home run in the ninth inning to send it to extras, but the ThunderBolts prevailed over the Oakland County Cruisers 7-2 in 12 innings in the regular season finale.
The Bolts scored twice in the second inning when Michael Torres and Jim Calderone had back-to-back hits before Tim Jobe’s ground out and Mitch Saum’s sacrifice fly gave Windy City the 2-0 lead.
Brent Solich retired the first 13 batters he faced and it wasn’t until the sixth inning that Oakland County got on the board for the first time with a Ben Barrone solo homer.
It took just an hour and a half to reach the bottom of the ninth inning, but after Brandon Garner retired the first two batters he faced, Jones hit his game-tying round-tripper to right to tie the game.
In the 12th, the ThunderBolts loaded the bases with two outs before Brandon Anderson’s bases-clearing double put them on top 5-2. Mike Mooney and Ryan Basham followed that up with back-to-back hits to make the final 7-2. Richard Barrett pitched the final two innings for the win (8-3). Adam Dominick gave up all five runs in the 12th for the loss (3-7).
The ThunderBolts had already clinched the East Division and in a game that did not have playoff implications, the Bolts took things easy, giving pitchers Nick Hall and Ryan Bollinger at bats.
Basham ended the game with four hits, pushing his final average over .300. Torres, Tim Jobe and Nick Kuroczko also had multi-hit games. Solich allowed just one run over eight innings in the no-decision. Zach Aakhus, who did not play, finished the season with a .330 batting average. He leads the league, pending Daniel Cox’s performance against Normal.
The playoffs begin for the ThunderBolts at home Thursday night against the Traverse City Beach Bums. Games one and two will be at Standard Bank Stadium with 7:05 start times. Both games can be heard on WXAV 88.3 fm and wxav.com. For ticket information, visit www.wcthunderbolts.com.
