By Nate Baliva
PEORIA – The Peoria Chiefs lost the middle game of their home series 5-4 to the Beloit Snappers on Wednesday at Dozer Park. The loss drops the Chiefs to 9-11 on the season going into Thursday night’s rubber match with the Snappers.
The Chiefs scored first in the third inning against Beloit starter Junior Mendez. Oscar Mercado was hit by a pitch with one out and stole second and third base in the next at-bat. He scored on a groundout by Collin Radack to give Peoria the 1-0 lead.
Beloit came back to take the lead in the fifth against Chiefs starter Austin Gomber. The Snappers started the inning with back-to-back singles to right by Shawn Duinkerk and Jose Chavez and both runners moved up 90 feet on a sacrifice bunt. Both came home to score on an Edwin Diaz double into the left field corner for the 2-1 Beloit lead.
Beloit extended their lead to 5-1 in the eighth. Fernando Baez came on to start the inning and issued one-out walks to Diaz and Brett Vertigan. Both runners advanced 90 feet on a wild pitch by Baez. Max Kuhn bounced out to Baez and Robby Rowland came in to pitch with two outs. Rowland’s first pitch was driven over the left field fence by Yairo Munoz to put the Snappers up by four.
The Chiefs came back with three of their own in the bottom of the eighth to make it 5-4. Magneuris Sierra led off with a walk against Snappers righty Corey Miller. Sierra went to third on a Mercado double and two batters later scored when Justin Ringo hit a sacrifice fly to left center. Alex DeLeon chased Miller from the game with a two-run homer to left field to pull the Chiefs within one.
Gomber (1-3) allowed two runs on five hits over a career-high seven innings. He struck out four and walked none in the loss. Baez came in to start the eighth and went ⅔ of an inning, allowing two runs on no hits and two walks without recording a strikeout. Rowland came in and worked 1 ⅓ innings, yielding one run on one hit while striking out two and walking none.
