Pregame Interview with Carmen Pignatiello
(Joliet, IL) – The Traverse City Beach Bums powered their way through a seven-run comeback at Silver Cross Field on Wednesday to take game two of the series with the Joliet Slammers 8-7, and hand Joliet their second straight series loss.
After three scoreless frames, the Slammers came alive at the plate, boasting Kyle Manus, Hector Pellot, David Fox, Trevor Willis, and Ben Ben Hewett all with RBI in the inning, while Fox scored on a Wild Pitch. It was 6-0 after four.
From there, the Bums mounted what would become a seven-run comeback victory. It started in the fifth when Jose Vargas launched a three-run homer to cut the lead in half. Traverse City kept rolling in the seventh inning when Kyle Eveland and Brian Heere reached with no outs, and Kyle Colligan, who contributed four RBI in Tuesday night’s contest, added another pair of runs with a double into the gap to put the game within one.
And then the long balls came. With one away in the top of the eighth, Matt Howard, who was 0-3 until that point, lifted a homer into left to tie the game at six.
With the tie, Joliet got lucky when Traverse City first baseman Chase Burch botched a throw home with Fox on third, which allowed him to score.
In the ninth, the Slammers started off well: Amalio Diaz struck out Vargas for the first out. But then in back-to-back at-bats, Burch and Jeff Flagg sent solo shots out of Silver Cross Field to make it 8-7, and that would be the final score.
Tommy Mendoza made a strong start, going five innings and allowing four hits and three runs. Chase Doremus and Brian Smith were the bridges for the Slammers, while Diaz was credited with the loss. Nick Capito earned the late-inning win for the Beach Bums, and Scott Mueller picked up the save.
Joliet has now lost four straight ballgames, and sit at the bottom of the Western Division with a 1-5 record. They’ll look to amend the streak on Thursday in the series finale with Traverse City at 7:05. Fans can catch the action live on AM 1340 WJOL, and streaming live online at www.wjol.com, with Aaron Morse and Greg Talbott calling the action.
