Big 4th inning leads CornBelters to victory

Posted on August 26, 2016

By WJBC Staff

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The Normal CornBelters scored six times in the fourth inning on the way to an 8-1 victory over the Evansville Otters on Thursday night at Bosse Field.

The CornBelters opened the scoring in the fourth inning as Aaron Dudley led off with a double and came home on a two-out single up the middle by Dylan Kelly. Bases-loaded walks to Elvin Rodriguez and Ty Morris plus a fielder’s choice on a ground ball up the middle by Santiago Chirino that wasn’t turned into an out plated three more runs in the inning, then Dudley flared a two-run single to left for a 6-0 Belters lead.

Dudley collected his third RBI of the night and Frontier League-leading 75th of the season with a popup to shallow center just out of the reach of the Otters defense to score Morris from second base and give the Belters a 7-0 advantage.

The Otters broke onto the board in the eighth on an RBI single by Josh Allen, but the Belters countered it in the ninth with an RBI double to the right field corner by Nolan Meadows and a run-scoring single by Dylan Kelly.

Horacio Acosta (9-3) went eight innings for the win, giving up one earned run on five hits with no walks, one hit batter and six strikeouts. J.R. Edwards (0-1) threw three and two-thirds innings in the loss, surrendering five earned runs on four hits with three walks and three strikeouts.

The road trip continues this weekend with three crucial games against the River City Rascals, who currently hold the final playoff spot by 1 ½ games over the CornBelters. The series opener at CarShield Field in O’Fallon, Mo. on Friday is at 6:35 p.m. with the WJBC.com broadcast at 6:20.

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