Baseball: Slammers rally, hold off Miners

By Tim Tierney For Sun-Times Media July 20, 2013 10:50PM

Shawn Kale

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Updated: July 21, 2013 2:48AM

Baseball at Silver Cross Field on Saturday started with a daytime camp for school-age pitchers and catchers, many with big league dreams.

It continued at night with a Frontier League game between the Joliet Slammers and Southern Illinois Miners, older players with the same major league aspirations.

The first inning, though, was a nightmare for Slammers starter Shawn Kale as the first five Miners reached base in a four-run inning.

But Kale settled down, Joliet rallied to go ahead 5-4 and 7-5 and held on for a 7-6 win to clinch its fifth series victory in the last six.

?That?s been the mindset, believing that we can come from behind and win games,?? said first baseman Kyle Maunus, in his third season with the team.

The Slammers (24-29) are within five games of the .500 mark for the first time since June 19 when they were 12-17.

?We?ve just got to keep playing good baseball,?? manager Mike Breyman said. ?Tonight we kind of stole one.??

Nick Akins? team-leading ninth home run put the Slammers ahead 6-5 in the fifth inning.

Newcomer Joe Meggs had an RBI single to drive in Maunus (walk) for a 7-6 lead. Meggs is a rookie outfielder out of the University of Washington who was signed Friday.

?It was back and forth and every run is important in those games,?? Meggs said. ?I was just trying to hit something hard up the middle. You want to help the team any way you can, especially early on.??

The Slammers used six pitchers?Kale, Mike Barsotti, Lucas Goodgion, Chase Doremus, Brett Zawacki and closer Justin Erasmus in the ninth for his 13th save.

?I found a way to get out of the first, just keep battling and put up zeros,?? Kale said. ?Some of the guys definitely picked me up in the dugout, Maunus and (David) Christensen.

(Catcher) Ben Hewett did a great job. He kept me in there. He was picking me up.??

The Slammers sent 11 batters to the plate in the fourth inning and went ahead 5-4 on two hits, four walks, a hit batter and an error.

?Good at-bats, we worked the counts,?? Breyman said.

Akins doubled to score Niko Vasquez (base hit), Maunus hit a sacrifice fly to bring in Marquis Riley (walk) and Akins scored when Nate Wilder reached on an error. Wilder and Hewett both scored on bases-loaded walks to give Joliet a 5-4 lead.

?We told Kale after that big inning nothing was really hit that hard,?? Maunus said. ?We?ll come back. Just keep us in this ballgame. We?ll scratch a few across.??

?Kale could have went back out there and folded,?? Breyman said. ?After that first inning, he settled in and got his five innings.??

Rookie right-hander Matt Dillon (1-1, 2.38 ERA), from Mount Olive College in North Carolina, will start for the Slammers in the series finale at 2:05 p.m. Sunday.

Source: http://heraldnews.suntimes.com/sports/21416007-419/baseball-slammers-rally-hold-off-miners.html

Olivia Black