By WJBC Staff
NORMAL – The Normal CornBelters suffered a 2-1 pitcher’s duel loss to the River City Rascals in the final road game of the regular season on Sunday afternoon at CarShield Field.
The loss places the CornBelters four-and-a-half games out of a playoff berth behind the Rascals with six games remaining.
The Rascals broke through first in the fourth inning with four straight singles to score two runs on RBIs from Mike Jurgella and Kyle Gaedele.
The CornBelters sliced the margin to 2-1 in the seventh inning when Nolan Meadows led off with a single and scored from first when a single by Dylan Kelly was booted in center field.
The Belters drew three walks in the eighth but a pickoff helped thwart the rally, and slapped two two-out singles in the ninth but again failed to find a tying run.
Zeb Sneed (8-7) worked six and one-third innings for the victory, giving up just one unearned run on four hits with no walks and five strikeouts. Chris Carmain (7-8) was dealt the loss with seven innings, giving up two earned runs on seven hits with two walks and four strikeouts. Zac Treece captured his 22nd save by registering all four of his outs via strikeout.
The CornBelters take Monday off before taking over the Corn Crib for the final six games of the regular season beginning with the Evansville Otters on Tuesday at 6:35 p.m. Lefty Max Homick (4-5, 3.58 ERA) is scheduled to start on the mound for the Belters.
