Mud Hens fall to Cubs despite strong pitching performance

The Toledo Mud Hens were defeated by the Iowa Cubs 6-3 on Saturday at Principal Park in Des Moines Iowa.

Brant Hurter got his second start of the season on the mound for the Mud Hens today.

The Mud Hens offense wasted no time getting things started as the lead-off man, Wenceel Perez walked on just five pitches. Perez then was able to steal second shortly after arriving at first. Justyn-Henry Malloy then singled to right field advancing Perez to third. A throwing error by the Cubs pitcher on an attempted pickoff allowed Perez to score to give the Hens the early 1-0 lead. Jace Jung then followed suit by singling to right field putting runners on the corners.

Eddy’s Leonard then delivered the first RBI of the day as he singled to left field. Bligh Madris then also singled to left field which loaded the bases up. Akil Baddoo grounded into a fielder's choice which extended the Hens lead to 3-0.

A scoreless second inning by both teams then led the Cubs to be able to get one back in the bottom of the third off of a sacrifice fly to make it 3-1.

Defense and pitching shined through eight innings as Hurter went out and pitched the fourth, with Mason Englert coming in to replace him on the mound and pitched two scoreless innings. Drew Anderson then replaced Englert in the seventh who then pitched one and one-third innings allowing five runs on six hits, four of which came in the bottom of the eighth. Adam Wolf was then subbed in for Anderson to get out of the inning which he did after just four batters faced.

After leading all game, we headed to the ninth in need of another rally but unfortunately fell short as the Hens went 1-2-3 in the ninth to end the game 6-3.

The Mud Hens and Cubs square off again tomorrow for the final game of the series. The first pitch is set for 2:08 p.m.

Notables:

Brant Hurter (4.0 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K’s)

Mason Englert (2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K’s

Eddy’s Leonard (1-4, 1 RBI)

Akil Baddoo (1-3, 1 RBI, 1 BB)