Cornbelters lose seventh straight contest

Posted on May 28, 2016

Corn-CribWideB475x270By Greg Halbleib

O’FALLON- The Normal CornBelters, presented by Illinois Corn Farmers, gave up four runs in the opening frame and lost their seventh straight contest, 8-5 to the River City Rascals on Friday night at CarShield Field.

The Rascals went ahead 2-0 with their first two hitters as Dominique Taylor and Johnny Morales tripled with Morales coming straight home on an error. Doubles by Kyle Gaedele and Willi Martin scored two more runs to send the hosts ahead 4-0.

The CornBelters countered in the second inning when Nolan Meadows led off by reaching on an error, then went to third on a double by Dylan Kelly and scored on a double to the left center gap by Michael Skoller to cut the deficit to 4-1.

The Belters cut the margin in half to 4-2 in the third inning as Meadows drove a sacrifice fly to right to score Santiago Chirino, who reached base with a lead-off double.

Normal grabbed the lead in the fourth inning as Kelly led off with a single, went to third on Skoller’s second double of the game and scored on a fielder’s choice by Victor Barron to slice the Rascals lead to 4-3. Skoller scored on a Chirino double, and Aaron Dudley plated Chirino with a double to center field to give the Belters a 5-4 advantage.

The Rascals quickly regained the lead in their fourth inning when Martin led off with a double and scored when a sacrifice bunt was thrown away to tie the game at 5-5, followed by yet another double by Jason Merjano and an RBI single by Josh Silver to give River City a 7-5 lead. A three-hit eighth inning gave the Rascals an insurance run.

The CornBelters rallied in the ninth inning with two outs, driving in a run with a Meadows double but leaving the bases loaded to end the game.

Will Schierholz (2-0) picked up the win with 2 1/3 innings of relief. Max Homick (1-2) took the loss with seven runs (four earned) over four innings with nine hits, one walk and five strikeouts. Zac Treece pitched the ninth inning for his third save.

The teams meet again at CarShield Field at 6:35 p.m. Saturday as Jake Negrete (0-2, 6:30 ERA) starts on the mound for the Belters against Josh Wright (1-0, 1.68) for the Rascals in a match-up of right-handers. Broadcast time on WJBC.com is 6:20.

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