O’FALLON– The Normal CornBelters, presented by Illinois Corn Farmers, gave up three big innings to start the game and fell to the River City Rascals 16-4 on Friday night at CarShield Field.
The Rascals scored five times in the opening frame, plating a lead-off walk with a single by Josh Silver followed by a sacrifice fly by Jason Merjano and a three-run homer to the short right-center porch by Kyle Gaedele to take a 5-0 lead.
River City added to the margin in the second inning with four more runs on an RBI double by Silver and a bases-loaded-and-clearing double by Mike Jurgella plus an error for a 9-0 advantage. The Rascals took advantage of wildness from rookie Mike Elwood in the third inning, scoring three more runs on two hit batters, three walks and a fielder’s choice to increase the lead to 12-0.
The CornBelters tallied in the fourth inning when Aaron Dudley led off with a hustle double, took third on a wild pitch and scored on a bad throw on the play.
The Rascals pushed their cushion to 13-1 on a Merjano RBI single in the fifth inning.
The Belters cut the deficit to 13-3 in the sixth with a Nolan Meadows single high off the huge right field wall to score Santiago Chirino followed by a fielder’s choice RBI by Jacoby Middleton.
River City countered with a lead-off home run by Gaedele in the sixth inning high off the right center field light tower for a 14-3 lead. Jurgella singled with the bases loaded off the big right field wall followed by an RBI knock by Merjano in the seventh to make the score 16-3.
A Dudley sacrifice fly to score Ty Morris in the ninth inning set the final score.
Austin Warner (4-1) earned the win with six innings of work, giving up three earned runs on six hits with two walks and three strikeouts Charlie Gillies (5-4) lasted two innings in the loss, surrendering nine runs (eight earned) on seven hits with three walks and two strikeouts. Reese Gregory pitched the final three innings for his first save.
The series continues Saturday at 6:35 p.m. in suburban St. Louis as the Belters send Mike Schweiss (7-7, 4.24) to the mound against the Rascals’ Joe Pavlovich (3-2, 2.44) in a match-up of right-handers. The game is live on WJBC.com beginning at 6:20.
