By WJBC Staff
BURLINGTON, Iowa – The Peoria Chiefs scored in the top of the first and held on for a 3-2 win over the Burlington Bees Friday night to even the three-game series. The Chiefs and Bees are both 15-14 on the season heading into the rubber match of the series Saturday night.
Batting in the second slot for the first time all season, Nick Thompson put the Chiefs on top 1-0 in the first when he jumped on the first pitch from Michael Bolaski for a solo home run. The blast to left field is the second homer of the season for Thompson and both have come against Burlington.
Matt Pearce struck out two in the bottom of the first and pitched around a one-out double in the second inning. The Chiefs added to the lead without a hit in the top of the third with rain starting to fall. Andrew Sohn was hit by a pitch, stole second, went to third on an error by the Burlington catcher and scored on a wild pitch.
Pearce held the 2-0 lead into the fourth inning when the Bees scored an unearned run. Zach Houchins reached on a two-base error by Sohn and scored on a single by Fran Whitten to cut the Chiefs lead to 2-1.
Peoria added to the lead in the seventh with a 17-minute delay as the groundscrew worked on a wet infield and mound. With the bases loaded and two outs after the delay, Oscar Mercado singled to shortstop as Luis Cruz scored for a 3-1 lead. Magneuris Sierra tried to score from second on the play but was tagged out in a rundown at the plate to end the inning.
Burlington cut the lead back to one when Andrew Daniel homered off Jhonny Polanco with one out in the bottom of the eighth. Kyle Grana came in for the ninth and allowed a lead off single to Whitten. Pinch-runner Raul Linares moved to second on a wild pitch and Trevor Gretzky walked with one out. Grana got Erick Salcedo to pop out and Kasey Coffman grounded out to end the game.
Pearce (2-2) earned the win with one unearned run allowed on five hits over six innings. The right-hander walked one and struck out a career-high eight. Polanco allowed one run on two hits over two innings while striking out three. Grana earned his fifth save with one hit and one walk allowed over one shutout inning as he struck out one.
