By Greg Halbleib
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. – The Normal CornBelters trailed early and fell 5-2 to the Traverse City Beach Bums on Thursday night at Wuerfel Park in the opening game of the best-of-three Frontier League Divisional Series.
The Beach Bums struck in their first time up as Jeff DeBlieux led off with a double to the right field corner and scored on a single to right by Jay Austin.
The hosts put the lead-off man aboard again in the third inning with a base hit by Sam Bumpers, who stole second and took third on a throwing error, then came home on a double to the right field corner by Alex Tomasovich for a 2-0 lead.
The CornBelters broke through in the sixth inning when Aaron Dudley hit a flare double to left center followed by a two-run homer to left by Richard Lucas for a tie game.
The Beach Bums regained the lead right away in the bottom of the sixth when Jose Vargas led off with a base hit, went to second on a passed ball and third on a fielder’s choice, then scored on a seeing-eye single through the right side by Greg Harisis.
Traverse City used RBI singles with two outs in the seventh from Brandon Jacobs and Yazy Arbelo to take a 5-2 lead and knock Belters starter Chris Carmain out of the game after surrendering 13 hits with two walks and three strikeouts.
The Belters mounted a two-out rally in the ninth inning on singles by Cameron Monger and Ozney Guillen with Tyler Shover hit by a pitch to load the bases, but a groundout ended the game.
Ian MacDougall worked seven innings for the win with seven hits, two walks and five strikeouts. Chuck Ghysels recorded the final out for the save.
The CornBelters play their first-ever home playoff contest on Saturday as Game 2 of the best-of-three series heads to the Corn Crib on Saturday at 6:35 p.m. Right-handers Mike Schweiss (9-7, 3.07 ERA) for Normal and Michael Shreves (7-2, 3.20) for Traverse City start on the mound. Broadcast time on WJBC.com is 6:20. Game 3 if necessary is scheduled for the Corn Crib on Sunday at 3:05 p.m.
