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Cubs Strike Out 14 Chiefs as South Bend Tops Peoria 4-2

Alexander Canario extends consecutive on-base streak to 20 games
(Tim Reilly)
May 6, 2022

South Bend, IN – The South Bend Cubs got it done against the Peoria Chiefs on a rainy and gusty Friday night at Four Winds Field. In a game after a rain postponement on Thursday, along with Ed Howard returning to the Cubs lineup, and flame throwing right-hander Daniel Palencia

South Bend, IN – The South Bend Cubs got it done against the Peoria Chiefs on a rainy and gusty Friday night at Four Winds Field. In a game after a rain postponement on Thursday, along with Ed Howard returning to the Cubs lineup, and flame throwing right-hander Daniel Palencia on the mound, the Cubs took a 1st inning lead and never relinquished it. They put away their third straight win to start the series with a 4-2 final.

Following a 36-minute rain delay to begin the evening, and on the mound for his fifth start of the season, Palencia put together his most consistent outing to start 2022. He began things with a 1-2-3 first inning, then the Cubs gave him the lead immediately after.

Batting lead-off for the Cubs on Friday was second baseman Fabian Pertuz, and he picked up his first of two hits in South Bend’s first at-bat. After Pertuz singled, the next man up was Luis Verdugo, who did the same. With two men on, four straight batters reached as Alexander Canario, Matt Mervis, and Owen Caissie all singled. Jake Washer was also hit by the pitch, and South Bend led 2-0 after just an inning.

In terms of respective individual streaks, the 1st frame featured a pair of newsworthy tidbits. Canario extended his consecutive games on base streak to 20 and Mervis brought his hitting streak to 11 straight games. No player in the Midwest League has a longer active hitting streak than Mervis.

Later in the night, Jake Washer brought his own hitting streak to seven in a row. With Howard returning to the lineup at shortstop for the Cubs, he also added onto his consistency at the plate. With a sharp single in the 6th, the Chicago native has now gotten a hit in six consecutive games and has been on base for 11 straight.

With Palencia setting the tone on the mound ending things with three strikeouts in four innings, Manuel Espinoza continued the dominance out of the bullpen. The right-hander fired four innings of one-run baseball and had nine strikeouts.

Espinoza was put in line for the win when Pertuz hammered a two-run double to the right-center field wall, scoring Howard and Pablo Aliendo. Pertuz became the fifth South Bend Cubs player this year to reach 10 RBI or more. The two-bagger was the eventual game winning hit, as the Cubs posted their third and fourth runs.

A moment of confusion during the game came about when the Cubs loaded the bases in the bottom of the 7th. Owen Caissie was at the plate, and a ball got away from Chiefs catcher Carlos Soto. As Soto tried to retrieve the ball to the first base side of home plate, he hit Caissie with the throw intended for the plate. However, Caissie was actively stepping out of the way of the throw up the first base line.

As the play happened, the Cubs scored two runs, making it a 6-1 game. But the umpire ruling was that Caissie interfered with the play by being hit with the baseball, so the two runs were wiped off the board. South Bend did not score for the rest of the inning.

Still up 4-2 heading to the 9th inning, Hunter Bigge worked around two baserunners to shut the door and pick up the save. In all, South Bend punched out 14 Peoria hitters on the night.

With the win, South Bend has won the first three games of the series with an opportunity tomorrow to snag two wins. The Cubs and Chiefs will make-up Thursday’s rained out game starting at 2:35 PM in game one of the twin bill tomorrow. Game two will follow approximately 30 minutes following the conclusion of the first game.

South Bend can bring their record potentially two games above .500 Saturday with a pair of wins, after they improved to 12-12 tonight.