Clinton, IA - Beloit first-baseman Michael Gonzales clubbed a two-run homer in the first inning, added an RBI single in the sixth and capped a 3-for-5, five-RBI game with a second two-run clout in the eighth inning, leading the Snappers to a 14-5 win over the Clinton LumberKings Wednesday night at Alliant Energy Field. Jairo Perez also homered and drove in three runs on 3-for-5 hitting for the Snappers, who took two of three games to win the series.
Right-hander Jandy Sena bore the brunt of most of the offense, serving up Gonzales' two-out clout off the back wall of the right-field Lumber Lounge in the first inning and then yielding eight more runs - four earned - in a disastrous third inning. A Wang-Wei Lin RBI double scored Daniel Santana to raise the advantage to 3-0, but the floodgates truly opened after Sena hit Adam Bryant in the face with a pitch as he squared to bunt. A single by Nate Roberts loaded the bases, Daniel Ortiz forced in a run with a groundout to first and Perez broke the game open with a two-out, two-run single to left.
Sena (L, 4-4) looked to be on the verge of getting out of the inning as he induced a fly ball from catcher Kyle Knudson, but Kalian Sams dropped the ball in right field for an error scoring both Perez and Lance Ray. That costly miscue kept the inning alive and forced Sena's removal after just 2.2 innings. Right-hander Jessie Nava came on and gave up an RBI single to Lin, his second RBI hit of the inning, raising the Beloit lead to 10-0.
The LumberKings cut into the deficit against Snappers' left-hander Ryan O'Rourke in the fourth inning as Carlos Ramirez belted a towering solo home run to the berm in left - his first jack since July 4, 2009 while in the Venezuela Summer League - ending the shutout. Mickey Wiswall then hammered a solo home run to right-center field on the very next pitch, giving the Kings back-to-back blasts for the first time since Wiswall and Vinnie Catricala did it on August 15, 2010 against the same Beloit team.
O'Rourke (W, 2-1) allowed only those two runs and a total of five hits while striking out six over 5.0 innings for the Snappers.
Nava settled in to pitch scoreless fourth and fifth innings but yielded Gonzales's RBI single scoring Andrew Leer in the sixth. Left-hander Edlando Seco served up Gonzales's second home run to the Lumber Lounge in the eighth and another solo homer to Perez in the ninth.
Wiswall struck again for an RBI single scoring Anthony Phillips in the eighth inning, finishing the night 3-for- 4 with two RBI. The Kings narrowed the deficit to 14-5 on an RBI single from Matt Browning and RBI triple from Mike McGee in the ninth, both runs coming off Snappers' right-hander Ben Tootle. Browning went 2-for-4 with the RBI.
The LumberKings (3-3, 27-49) finish the six-game homestand at 3-3 and now begin a three-game commuter series at Quad Cities (3-3, 43-32). Right-hander George Mieses (1-9, 5.58) gets the game-one start, while the River Bandits counter with left-hander Ryan Copeland (0-0, 3.43). First pitch from Modern Woodmen Park in Davenport, IA is scheduled for 7:00 PM, listen to the game on AM 1390 KCLN in Clinton or live on the web at 1390kcln.com.
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