NORMAL, Ill. — The River City Rascals came back from an early 4-0 deficit to beat the Normal CornBelters 8-5 on Wednesday night. The win gave River City their second straight series win and four out of the last five. The Rascals (18-11) got home runs from Johnny Morales, Mike Jurgella and Robby Enslen. For the third straight game and four of the last five, the Rascals hit multiple home runs.
Things looked grim early on for the team from O’Fallon. The CornBelters scored one run in the first, though things could have been a lot worse as Tim Koons was able to strike out RJ Perucki with the bases loaded to end the inning. In the second, Koons was not nearly as lucky. Normal loaded the bases with three consecutive singles and a groundout to the third baseman after a strikeout scored a run to make it 2-0 with two outs. Koons walked the cleanup hitter Aaron Dudley to fill the empty base and reload the bases. The next batter Mike Fish singled to score two runs and give the CornBelters a 4-0 lead after two innings.
In the fourth, the Rascals struck back. Morales went deep with one out to cut the deficit to 4-1. The reigning Frontier League Player of the Week, Kyle Gaedele walked with one out and proceeded to draw tons of attention from Normal starter Max Homick. Gaedele had stolen nine bases without getting caught including one the day prior. Homick threw to first four times with Alexi Colon at the plate before Colon reached and got to second on an error by the first baseman. A ground out by Jurgella scored Gaedele and halved the deficit. Griff Gordon then cut the lead to 4-3 with a double.
The CornBelters tacked a run back onto the lead in the the bottom of the fourth with a leadoff home run by Santiago Chirino to make it 5-3 Normal.
A four-run sixth would give the Rascals the lead for good. Morales led off the inning with a walk and was scored on a two-out double by Jurgella. A walk to Gordon set the table for Robby Enslen’s three-run home run that gave the Rascals a 7-5 lead over the CornBelters.
River City tacked on an insurance run in the eighth with a solo blast from Jurgella on the first pitch he saw from Eric Thomas.
Zac Treece recorded his seventh save of the season and second in as many days by pitching around a single. The combination of Michael Gunn, Nick Kennedy, Josh Wilson and Treece pitched 3.1 innings of scoreless relief while giving up only one hit and no walks.
Koons got the win despite a bad start. He gave up five runs on 10 hits and one walk, although he did strike out six CornBelters. In his first start back after a three-week hiatus, Koons went seven innings without giving up a run, but since he has pitched 11.1 innings over two starts and given up nine runs on 17 hits.
The series finale will be played Thursday night at 6:35 p.m. at the Corn Crib. The Rascals’ Josh Wright (2-0, 2.57 ERA) will take on Matthew Chavarria (0-3, 3.00) as River City goes for the sweep.
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