Miners Fall To Wild Things In Series Finale

From the Southern Illinois Miners

The Southern Illinois Miners got three runs in the bottom of the third inning to rally back from a 4-0 deficit and make it 4-3 on a home run by Nolan Earley, but the Washington Wild Things scored four times in the top of the fifth inning to break the game open in a 10-6 loss at Rent One Park on Thursday night to take the series two games to one.

In the second inning, Mike Hill hit a solo home run off of Chris Washington to make the score 1-0 Wild Things, and in the top of the third inning, the Wild Things would get back-to-back home runs by Bralin Jackson and Hector Roa to push the advantage out to 4-0 before Southern Illinois mounted a comeback. Brett Wiley singled leading off the bottom of the third and went to third base on an errant pickoff throw by Cameron Stanton (2-2) before Ryan Lashley drove him in on an RBI single to make it 4-1 Washington. Two batters later, with one on base, Earley launched a deep, two-run homer to right field to pull the Miners within one run at 4-3.

But after a scoreless fourth inning, the Wild Things took advantage of a key error in the top of the fifth and ended up scoring four unearned runs in the frame on RBI hits by Kenny Peoples-Walls, Justin Bohn and John Fidanza, with Bohn’s two-run triple representing the big blow of the inning as Washington took an 8-3 advantage. Austin Dubsky took over for Washington (1-2) in the sixth inning and would end up finishing the game, permitting two runs in the eighth inning that made the score 10-3, but also striking out four over four innings of work.

The Miners would rally in the late innings against reliever Aaron Burns for three runs, including an RBI single by Romeo Cortina capping a three-hit night in the bottom of the eighth and an RBI single by Earley in the ninth, but could not get closer than four runs in suffering the loss. Wiley and Cortina each had three hits in the game, with Earley and Lashley combining for four hits and four RBIs offensively for Southern Illinois.

The Miners next head to Joliet to begin a series with the Slammers on Friday night at 7:05 p.m. Zach Cooper will pitch in the series opener for Southern Illinois.

The Southern Illinois Miners are the 2016 Frontier League West Division Champions, the 2014 and 2015 Frontier League East Division Champions and the 2012 Frontier League Champions. They have been awarded the Frontier League Organization of the Year award three times since their inception, and also set a new Frontier League attendance record in 2007, their inaugural season. For ticket information, contact the Rent One Park box office at (618) 998-8499. For any additional information, visit our website at www.southernillinoisminers.com.