CornBelters’ five-game winning streak snapped by Freedom

Posted on July 9, 2016

*Winning streak ends for the CornBelters. (CornBelters, WJBC)*

By Greg Halbleib

NORMAL, Ill. – The Normal CornBelters, presented by Illinois Corn Farmers, gave up two big innings and couldn’t recover, dropping the first game of the series to the Florence Freedom 10-2 on Friday night.

Pitching struggles started out the game for the Belters. Starter Max Homick hit Taylor Oldham, followed by three consecutive walks to score Oldham.

The story was the same to start off the second inning. Two leadoff walks put runners on first and second, followed by a triple from Oldham to score both and put the Freedom up by three. Andrew Godbold grabbed a single to score Oldham and put the score at 4-0. Lefthander Vince Apicella took over for Homick and walked two consecutive batters followed by allowing a three-run homer from Garrett Vail to put the score at 8-0. Jordan Brower doubled, followed by a two-run homer and the second inning ended 10-0 in favor of Florence.

The Belters put a run on the board in the bottom of the sixth with a solo homer from Aaron Dudley.

Dillon Haupt added another solo homer the next inning to cut the score to 10-2.

Max Homick (4-4) took the loss for the Belters, going one and two-thirds innings and allowing two hits and four earned runs with five walks and one strikeout. Davis Adkins (4-2) grabbed the win, pitching seven innings and allowing five hits and two runs, striking out ten.
The Belters are back at it tomorrow night for game two against the Florence Freedom. First pitch is 6:35 p.m. and it’s a State Farm Saturday at the Corn Crib. The broadcast can be heard on WJBC.com.

Stay social with the CornBelters at http://twitter.com/normal_baseball, http://www.facebook.com/CornBelters and http://www.youtube.com/normalcornbelters.

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