By: Ryan Paris
JOLIET, IL – If you had a nickel for every time a player from the Gary SouthShore RailCats joined the Joliet Slammers this year and hit an RBI in their first career at bat, you would have two nickels, which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.
On June 17th, Jose Contreras introduced himself to Joliet by mashing a three run homer to left field.
A little less than two months later, Ernny Ordonez knocked an RBI base hit up the middle to begin his own Slammers career as Joliet went on to win 5-4 over the Windy City ThunderBolts.
“The first at bat was the first time I’ve been that nervous in a long time,” he said.
Contreras and Ordonez, now teammates again, reunited just in time for a series against the Slammers’ biggest rival in the Windy City ThunderBolts.
Three innings in, everything was going the way of the Jailbirds. Nine hits, eight different players reaching base, five runs scored, and just one allowed. The former RailCats were a combined 4-for-4 with a pair of RBIs and a pair of runs scored.
“After I got the first one to drop, all the jitters went away and it was just playing baseball like a little kid again,” Ordonez said.
Then Joliet went cold and Windy City started to chip away. Michael Sandle crushed a double off the wall and came around to score in the fourth. He and Josh Gibson also scored in the fifth in one of the more bizarre plays of the year.
It went like this: David Maberry hit a single to left field and got caught in a rundown. While he oscillated between first and second, both Gibson and Sandle came around to score. At some point during the chaos, Maberry went down with an injury and was tagged out.
Now in a one run game, the Slammer bullpen took over.
In the seventh, Jacob Morin entered and struck out the side on nine pitches, good for an immaculate inning. In the eighth, Mychal Grogan induced a double play to erase a leadoff single. In the ninth, Greyson Linderman worked his way through the back half of the lineup to pick up his fifth save against Windy City this year.
Finally, an end to the losing streak the team had been mired in since last Tuesday. Now just one game away from clinching the season series.
“We’re just trying to keep it light, keep everyone focused but loose, and we did a great job of it today,” Ordonez said.
The second game of the series is set for 6:35 pm on Wednesday at Slammers Stadium.
For information on season tickets, premium suites or group outings, please visit the Slammers’ official website at www.jolietslammers.com.
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The Joliet Slammers play in downtown Joliet, Illinois, and are members of the professional, independent Frontier League. The Frontier League is the largest MLB Partner League with 16 teams spanning from the Mississippi River to the East Coast. Visit the Slammers online atwww.jolietslammers.com or call the ticket office at 815-722-2287 for more information! Don’t forget to “Like” the Slammers on Facebook atwww.facebook.com/jolietslammers, follow them on Instagram at @jolietslammersofficial or follow them on Twitter at @jolietslammers!
This game recap was written by Ryan Paris.
