CRESTWOOD, IL – Jake Renshaw threw a complete game and the Joliet Slammers scored eight unanswered runs over the final four innings to defeat the ThunderBolts 8-1 Monday morning at Standard Bank Stadium.
The game belonged to the pitchers early. Windy City’s Bryant Cotton and Joliet’s Jake Renshaw matched each other pitch for pitch as neither team scored through the first four innings.
In the bottom of the fifth, the Bolts finally broke through. With one out, Chris Wade’s infield single broke the no-hitter and Billy Nowlin followed that up with another single. With two outs, Larry Pempek walked to load the bases. Brandon Anderson then hit a sharp grounder up the middle. Second baseman Hector Pellot was able to stop it on a dive, but Wade scored before Nowlin was tagged out in a rundown between third and home.
The Slammers quickly answered in the sixth. Erik Lis singled and reached second on an error. He scored on Kyle Maunus’ double. Brad Netzel then singled and with two outs, Sean Estand, who had four hits in the game, knocked in Maunus and Netzel to give Joliet their first lead, 3-2.
They added a run in the eighth on a Trey Manz RBI single and ended the ThunderBolts’ chances with a four-run ninth. Bobby Leeper, Josh Flores and Lis came up with RBI hits in that rally.
Meanwhile, Renshaw settled down after his shaky fifth, retiring the next ten batters before the Bolts finally got another hit in the ninth. Devin Shepherd’s single, though, did not lead to anything and Renshaw completed his second start, winning 8-1.
With the win, Renshaw improved to 6-3. Cotton lost for the first time at home, dropping to 4-4 overall.
Windy City and Joliet will take the field Tuesday morning for the second straight Big Splash Day game at Standard Bank Stadium. The game will once again commence at 10:05 a.m. Matt Costello (2-3) will start for the Bolts against Joliet’s Brian Fowler (3-1). The game can be heard on WXAV 88.3 fm and wxav.com.
