SCHAUMBURG, Ill. — Three pitchers combined to lead the River City Rascals to a 2-0 win over the Schaumburg Boomers Saturday night. The win ran the Rascals’ (12-7) winning streak to a season-high five games and clinched their second consecutive series win. Tim Koons made an impressive return to the mound by allowing only four hits and striking out six batters in seven innings of work.
The Rascals’ runs came in the fourth and ninth innings. In the fourth, a trio of singles, by Josh Ludy, Robby Enslen, and Griff Gordon plated Ludy and gave Koons all the run support he would need to pick up his first win of the season. River City added an insurance run in the top of the ninth off a Clint Freeman flyout deep enough in left field to score Gordon from third.
But the story of the game was Koons making his return from the injured list. Playing in his third season with River City, Koons got the nod to start the second game of the season against the Lake Erie Crushers. He pitched well, but was still handed his first regular season loss in over a year. Koons was scheduled to get his next start five days later in the next series at the Florence Freedom. While going through his pregame routine, he was scratched as the starter due to concerns about his heart. Koons ended up leaving the stadium and going to the hospital. The Rascals placed him on the seven-day injured list, but he would stay under that designation for 17 days.
When he came off the shelf on Saturday, Koons looked like a man who had been itching to pitch for nearly a month. The greatest threat the Boomers had all day came in the first inning. A leadoff double and a sac bunt put Josh Gardiner closer to scoring than anyone would be the rest of the day for the home team. Koons pitched out of the jam with back-to-back strikeouts. The Boomers put two more on in the second inning with a pair of singles, but from there Koons was nearly perfect as he tired the next 13 batters in a row and did not give up another hit until a meaningless single in his final frame.
Jared Wilson threw an inning of relief and struck out two batters to hand the game to closer Zac Treece. For the ninth time in 10 appearances, Treece held the opposition scoreless, picking up his fifth save of the season while striking out the final two Boomers he faced.
The series and the Rascals’ weeklong roadtrip concludes on Sunday afternoon with a 1 p.m. showdown between Joe Scanio (2-1, 7.08) and Seth Webster (1-1, 3.11). It will be Scanio’s team-leading fifth start of the season.
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