Chiefs Fall Wednesday

Peoria, IL - The Peoria Chiefs battled back to tie the game in the third but fell by a run to the Beloit Snappers 4-3 on Wednesday night in the second game of the series. The Chiefs are now 36-30 overall and tied with Quad Cities in the wildcard race with the series finale set for 7:00 p.m. on Thursday.

    The Snappers started off the slugfest in the top of the first against Chiefs starter Johan Oviedo. Mickey McDonald led off the game with a single to left followed by a Trace Loehr single up the middle and an Austin Beck single to load the bases. Logan Farrar brought in McDonald for the first run of the game with a sacrifice fly to center. Jesus Lopez singled home Loehr and Jack Meggs doubled to score Beck for a 3-0 lead.
    Peoria answered in the bottom of the first against Snappers starter Bryce Conley. Nick Plummer drew a leadoff walk and Irving Lopez singled to put runners at the corners. Elehuris Montero delivered again in the first inning with a single to right to put the Chiefs on the board trailing 3-1. Dennis Ortega lined a one-out single over the shortstop's head to load the bases. Scott Hurst ripped a single to the left side of the infield that ricocheted off the base umpire Gabe Alfonzo into left field scoring Lopez as the gap narrowed to 3-2.
   A leadoff walk came back to bite the Snappers in the bottom of the third. Montero walked and moved to second on a one-out wild pitch. Dennis Ortega's fly out to center advanced Montero to third as Conley exited the game. Reliever Josh Reagan entered and Hurst drove in Montero on a single to tie the game 3-3.
    Beloit got some help from a Chiefs error to regain the lead in the top of the fifth. Loehr reached on a dropped third strike and Farrar singled with one out to put two runners on. With two outs, a Montero fielding error on a groundball from Meggs allowed Loehr to score an unearned run for a 4-3 advantage.  
    Oviedo (2-6) took the loss throwing five innings allowing three earned runs on seven hits with one walk and seven strikeouts. CJ Saylor tossed three scoreless innings on two hits with no walks and five strikeouts. Whitley threw a scoreless ninth inning without allowing a hit with one walk and one strikeout.
Notes… The Chiefs are 13-9 in one-run games…Montero has a six-game hit streak…He has a first inning RBI in the last three games and recorded his team-high 21^st multi-hit game…Hurst has a six-game hit streak…He recorded his 13^th multi-hit game and third multi-RBI game of the season…Gonzalez had his six-game hit streak snap…Saylor struck out a career high five batters…The Chiefs are tied for the wild card spot at 36-30 with Quad Cities and both teams are one game behind 37-29 Clinton with four games left in the first half…The Chiefs conclude the seven-game homestand and the series against Beloit on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. on Game of Thrones Night with post-game Fireworks…Thursday is a Baumgarten Distributing Beer & Brat Thirsty Thursday featuring $2 12 ounce domestic cans and soda, $3 16 ounce craft drafts and margaritas, and $3 brats…Students with a valid college ID can purchase $5 Lawn seats…Thursday is also a Taco Bell Live Mas Thursday as fans can show a Taco Bell receipt within the last seven days to receive a buy one, get one free ticket, limit four free tickets per transaction… The Chiefs will start RH Alex Fagalde (1-2, 2.76) against Beloit RH Wyatt Marks (3-5, 4.66)…The broadcast can be heard, starting with the Pre-Game Show at 6:45 p.m. on www.peoriachiefs.com/listenlive and is also available on the Peoria Chiefs Network on the Tune-In Radio App as well as MiLB.tv.