By: Braeden Jones
PEARL, MS – In the final of six straight games that these two teams have played against each other, Mississippi Mud Monster (14-19) pitching held the Joliet Slammers (12-20) to only get hits in two innings for the entire game. Mississippi swept this three-game series after winning 7-3 on Sunday.
After two consecutive batters got hit by a pitch, the Mud Monsters would bring one of their hit players around to home plate. Kasten Furr marked the first run of the game in the bottom of the 1st inning thanks to a single from Kyle Booker. That gave Mississippi the early 1-0 lead.
The Mud Monsters continued to put on the pressure in the bottom of the 2nd with four straight batters getting on base. That fourth batter was Slater Schield, who hit a 2-RBI single when the bases were loaded to bring Vantrel Reed and Travis Payne II home. This brought the lead up to 3-0 for the home team.
Mississippi still wasn’t done laying it on as Schield got his second scoring hit of the day, the only triple from either team all day that scored Payne. That took place in the bottom of the 4th inning, now giving the Mud Monsters a 4-0 shutout.
That shutout didn’t last much longer as the Slammers, after being hitless off the pitching of Mississippi’s starting pitcher Tyler Campbell for four innings, finally got some hits going. Blake Berry started off the top of the 5th inning with a double, followed by a walk on Peyton Carr. Jackson Beaman then hit a single to score Berry and advance Carr to third base. This advancement proved important when a sacrifice ground out from Brandon Heidal let Carr step on home plate. The first two hits for Joliet turned into the first two runs as the score now sat at 4-2.
With momentum building, the Slammers got two more hits in the top of the 6th. Ian Battipaglia hit a single and stole second base, which was his 23rd stolen base of the year and put him at the second most stolen bases in the Frontier League this season. He eventually went all the way around the bases when Jackson Valera hit an RBI single. The Slammers were now only one run behind, with the score at 4-3.
The Mud Monsters felt that was too close for comfort as Schield hit a single to bring in his fourth and fifth runners of the night in the bottom of the 7th inning, which were Travis Holt and AJ Fritz. The lead was back up to double for Mississippi at 6-3.
Just to be safe, the Mud Monsters snuck in one more run in the bottom of the 8th with a Holt single to score Brayland Skinner, who had hit a single of his own. That put the score at 7-3, and the Slammers could not get on base for the last three innings of this ballgame, neatly ending this match for Mississippi.
After losing all three games of this series, the Slammers will have Monday off before coming home to Slammers Stadium to face the Windy City ThunderBolts on Tuesday. With their first three-game winning streak of the season under their belt, the Mud Monsters will rest on Monday before heading to Washington to face off against the Wild Things on Tuesday.
