By WJBC Staff
BURLINGTON, Iowa – The Peoria Chiefs got back-to-back home runs from Jake Gronsky and Luis Cruz in the top of the eighth to beat the Burlington Bees 2-1 Wednesday night. The win their fourth in a row, moves the Chiefs to 7-7 in the second half and 40-42 on the season.
Darren Seferina led off the game with a double for the Chiefs against Bees righty Justin Anderson. With one out Seferina was caught stealing and a groundout ended the inning. Harrison Bader singled with two outs in the second and stole second base to get into scoring position. Anderson ended the threat by striking out Gronsky to end the inning.
Burlington took the lead in the fourth against Chiefs starter Matt Pearce. Nick Flair doubled to right with one out and scored on a triple to right-center by Natanael Delgado. Pearce got the final out of the inning to leave Delgado at third with the Bees up 1-0.
The Chiefs did not have a hit from the second inning to the eighth inning. Anderson left the game after walking Alex DeLeon with two outs in the seventh. Reliever Alex Klonowski struck out Bader to end the inning with the Bees still up 1-0.
Peoria snapped the hitting drought in a big way in the top of the eighth. Gronsky slugged the first pitch of the inning out of the park to left-field for his first Chiefs home run and RBI. Four pitches later, Cruz put the Chiefs on top 2-1 with his first homer of the season to almost the exact same spot in left field. The back-to-back homers doubled the Chiefs hit tally on the game.
Pearce (4-9) went seven innings and allowed one run on six hits to earn the win. He struck out four and did not issue a walk. Nick Lomascolo retired all three batters he faced in the eighth inning for his fourth hold of the season. Cody Schumacher threw a scoreless inning with a walk and a strikeout for his first Chiefs save.
