By: Braeden Jones
SCHAUMBURG, IL – The Schaumburg Boomers (34-32) almost found enough to have their second straight walkoff victory at home, but the Joliet Slammers (29-36) did just enough right to survive and take home the last game of the series with a 4-3 final score.
The Slammers struck early on in this one in the top of the 1st inning. After Tyler Cerny reached first base off a fielder’s choice and stole second base, an RBI single from Jackson Valera would bring Cerny home. That started off this game at 1-0 in favor of Joliet.
The Slammers found another score when the top of the 4th inning rolled around. After Peyton Carr got a single, Chris Davis followed up with a single of his own to move Carr to second base. Carr would come home off of an RBI single from Brandon Heidal, moving his team’s lead to 2-0.
The Boomers found their first scores in the bottom of the 4th. After Kellum Clark got on base with a single, Banks Tolley hit a long ball to get himself a 2-run homer, immediately tying up this game at 2-2.
The Slammers didn’t like the sound of a tie, so they took the lead right back in the top of the 6th inning. After Patrick Ward was walked, Davis matched the homer from Tolley with a 2-run shot to give his team back the lead. Joliet now had the 4-2 advantage.
The Boomers came back to win in the bottom of the 9th inning yesterday, and they were aiming for it again in this game. Will Prater would get walked to start the inning and move to second off of a single from Alex Calarco, who would be subbed out for Jeff Nicol as the tying runner standing at first base. Christian Fedko would then hit a single that would score Prater and move Nicol to second base. Alec Craig followed that up with a single where Nicol had a chance to score but elected to stay at third, now loading the bases for Schaumburg. Kyle Fitzgerald was then forced out on a fly ball, meaning Anthony Calarco stepped up to the plate with two outs. With the tying run at third and the winning run at second, closing pitcher Shaun Gamelin ended the game with a swinging strikeout on Calarco, helping Joliet survive to win 4-3.
After nearly losing another game in the bottom of the 9th to the Boomers, the Slammers do just enough to win and will have Monday off before heading out to Florence to start a series against the Y’alls on Tuesday. With their hopes of winning two straight games from walkoff victories dashed and having their seven-game winning streak broken, the Boomers will take Monday to reset before travelling to Mississippi to play a series against the Mud Monsters on Tuesday.
