Big Sixth Inning Catapults Snappers To Series Opening Win
A big sixth inning and Miguel Mercedes helped the Beloit Snappers (61-59) defeat the Clinton LumberKings (63-59) 9-1 Wednesday night at Ashford University Field.
A big sixth inning and
With the Snappers hitless going into the sixth, Beloit broke open the scoring on five hits and a throwing error from Clinton to take a commanding 6-0 lead. There were 11 at bats taken by Snappers hitters inning and they batted around.
After
After a
The Snappers scored runs in two more innings outside of the sixth. In the eighth, Mercedes, who finished 2-for-5 with a team-leading three RBI, launched a solo home run to make it 8-0. In the ninth, Mercedes grounded out to score Hargrove and Farrar singled on a line drive to center to score Beck for the second time and make it 9-0.
Leading the way pitching for Beloit were the piggyback starters of
The LumberKings would get one run in the ninth on an RBI single off
Austin Beck notched two hits, his team-leading 33rd multi-hit game of the season. The Snappers 3-6 hitters in the lineup (Beck, Hargrove, Farrar and Mercedes) all had two-hits.
The Snappers broke out of a three-game losing streak with the win, moving 2.5 games above Wisconsin for the wild card playoff spot in the second half in the Western division.
The Snappers also moved to 22-13 on the season in series openers. They have won their last two series openers, Wednesday's game and a 7-3 victory over Wisconsin last series on August 11th.
Game two of the series will begin Thursday at 6:30 p.m. Taking the hill on the rubber to start for the Snappers will be right-hander Gus Varland (0-0, 0.00). He will be opposed by Clinton right-hander
The Beloit Snappers are a member of the Midwest League and have been the Single-A affiliate of the Oakland Athletics since 2013. For more ticket information, contact the Snappers office at (608) 362-2272 or on our website, www.snappersbaseball.com.