CornBelters win regular season finale against Boomers Sunday

Posted on September 7, 2015

By Greg Halbleib

NORMAL – The Normal CornBelters completed the regular season behind a complete game from Kevin Johnson in a 3-1 victory over the Schaumburg Boomers on Sunday afternoon at the Corn Crib.

Schaumburg’s Michael Valadez played all nine positions, starting on the mound where he loaded the bases and walked Pat McKenna and gave up a sacrifice fly by Sam Judah for an early 2-0 CornBelters lead. A Valadez fielder’s choice in the second inning cut the guests’ deficit to 2-1.

The Belters added insurance in the eighth inning when Aaron Dudley served an opposite-field single to left over a drawn-in infield to score Tyler Shover.

Kevin Johnson (9-5) threw his first complete game of the season and the eighth for the CornBelters, giving up 10 hits and one earned run with two walks and three strikeouts. Valadez (0-1) took the loss, pitching only the first inning, while Eddie Cody tossed the remaining seven innings with one earned run on five hits and six strikeouts without a walk.

The Frontier League West Division champion CornBelters (61-35) open the best-of-three divisional playoff series on the road Thursday with Game 2 at the Corn Crib on Saturday at 6:35 p.m. Game 3 if necessary is scheduled for the Corn Crib on Sunday at 3:05 p.m. The opponent will be determined in one of two wild card play-in games on Tuesday.

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