Miners explode late to beat CornBelters

Posted on June 3, 2017
The Normal CornBelters started strong but ultimately came up short against the Southern Illinois Miners. (WJBC File Photo)

By Greg Halbleib

NORMAL – The Normal CornBelters, presented by Illinois Corn Farmers, surrendered all of the opponent’s runs in the seventh and eighth innings and lost to the Southern Illinois Miners 10-8 on Friday night at the Corn Crib.

The CornBelters started the scoring in the opening frame on a three-run drive to the right field berm by Aaron Dudley for an early 3-0 lead.

Normal extended the lead in the sixth inning when Justin Fletcher fisted a single to center field to score Diego Cedeno from third base.

The Miners exploded for eight runs in the seventh inning to take an 8-4 lead, aided by an error on a sacrifice bunt attempt plus an RBI single by Joel McKeithan, a two-run triple by Craig Massey and a tie-breaking sacrifice fly by Nolan Earley, capped by a monstrous three-run homer by Justin Chigbogu nearly to the sidewalk above the right field berm and main gate steps.

Southern Illinois poured it on in the eighth inning on a misplayed fly ball double to left by Earley and a fielder’s choice to a drawn-in infield by Ryan Lashley that scored Massey on a hook slide at the plate for a 10-4 lead.

The Belters got one run back in their eighth inning when Dudley doubled and scored on two fielder’s choices with the RBI credited to Diego Cedeno. Dudley clubbed his second home run of the night, a three-run drive to right, with two outs in the ninth inning for the final score.

Kyle Tinius (2-0) struck out all four batters he faced to pick up the win in relief. Brandon Maddern (0-1) took the loss.

The series continues on Saturday with a 6:35 p.m. first pitch at the Corn Crib. Charlie Gillies (1-0, 3.54 ERA) starts on the mound for Normal while the Miners counter with Payton Lobdell (1-2, 8.59) in a match-up of right-handers. The game can be heard on WJBC.com beginning at 6:20 with listen links also at normalbaseball.com. Saturday is Superhero Night and State Farm Saturday with discounted tickets for agents, employees and policy holders.

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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