(TRAVERSE CITY, MI) – The ThunderBolts’ quest for a third Frontier League championship came to a screeching halt Sunday evening as they fell 5-3 to the Traverse City Beach Bums to drop the best-of-five series in four games.
The Bums jumped on Windy City starter Sean Toler early with five runs between the second and third innings. C.J. Ziegler hit a solo homer in the second and a two-run shot in the third as part of the lead.
Windy City scored in the third inning without a hit. Two walks, a Mike Mooney stolen base and a Brandon Anderson sacrifice fly plated their first run.
It was 5-1 in the fifth when the Bolts started to fight back. Jonny Bravo had not allowed a hit through four, but Jeremy Hamilton led off the fifth with a single before Mike Mooney clubbed his first home run of the season to cut the Traverse City lead to 5-3.
Toler lasted just 2.2 innings in the game, but the Bolts got a lift from starter Andrew Werner, pitching out of the bullpen for the first time this season. He kept his team in the game by throwing f.1 hitless innings of relief. He retired the last fifteen batters of the game and struck out eight.
The Offense, though, could not back him up. After Bravo departed in the sixth, David Slovak and Scott Mueller combined to throw 3.2 one-hit innings to close the game.
Bravo picked up the win while Toler took the loss and Mueller threw the ninth for his third save in as many days.
Up next, the ThunderBolts have the long offseason before Frontier League play resumes in May 2011. Keep up with ThunderBolt updates at www.wcthunderbolts.com all offseason.
