By WJBC Staff
NORMAL – The Normal CornBelters held off late surges from the Frontier Greys for a 6-5 win on Friday night at the Corn Crib.
The Belters struck first in the opening frame when Sam Judah bounced a single through the middle with two outs and the bases loaded, scoring Mark Micowski and Santiago Chirino. The Greys countered in the second inning when their first two hitters singled to start a rally, capped by an RBI base hit by Jhiomar Veras, to cut the Normal lead to 2-1.
The CornBelters extended the lead to 4-1 with a two-out double just inside the left field line by Pat McKenna to score Chirino and Aaron Dudley. The Greys got one of the runs back when Brandon Tierney reached on a three-base throwing error in the third inning and scored on a fielder’s choice grounder by Scott Carcaise.
The Belters regained the lead in the sixth when Cameron Monger led off with a walk and was sacrificed to second by Ozney Guillen, who reached on an error. The runners moved to second and third on a double steal with Micowski driving in Monger on a sacrifice fly and Guillen coming home on Chirino’s fourth hit of the night for a 6-4 lead.
The Greys sliced the deficit to a single run in the ninth when a lead-off walk to Zach Tanner went to third on a single and scored on a sacrifice fly by Jhiomar Veras.
Mike Schweiss (7-7) earned the win with seven innings of work, giving up four runs (three earned) on seven hits with one walk and eight strikeouts. Max Homick (1-2) worked five and two thirds innings for the loss, giving up six runs (four earned) on eight hits with four walks and eight strikeouts. Race Parmenter worked the ninth inning for his 19th save.
The weekend series continues at the Corn Crib at 6:35 p.m. Saturday as right-handers Chris Carmain (5-2, 2.71 ERA) for Normal and Bobby Shore (5-6, 3.52) for the Greys duel on the hill. The broadcast on WEZC-FM 95.9 and WJBC.com begins at 6:20 p.m. with listen links found on Facebook, Twitter (@normal_baseball) and www.normalbaseball.com.
