Miners take series from Rascals

Southern Illinois scored nine runs on 10 hits while the River City Rascals hit two solo homeruns and were held to two hits over the final four innings en-route to a 9-2 loss to the Miners on Thursday night, Aug. 23.

For the second-straight night the Rascals (41-46) jumped out to a 1-0 lead on a Doug Sanders homerun, the first of his three hits on the night. Starter Liam Ohlmann (1-4) got off to a terrific start, facing the minimum through the first two innings before the Miners offense got rolling in the third with a two-run homer from Cannon Lester to give Southern Illinois a 2-1 lead they would not relinquish.

River City looked to answer in the bottom of the third, loading the bases with one out before a double play groundout ended the threat.  The Miners (51-35) rode that momentum into the fourth, scoring four runs on four hits before Charlie Lisk launched his 14 homerun to start the bottom of the inning to close the score to 6-2.

Southern Illinois plated three more runs in the fifth to stretch their lead to 9-2, chasing Ohlmann from the game after loading the bases with no outs.  Alex Sunderland allowed the inherited runners to score but pitched shutout baseball over three innings of relief but the Rascal offense could not get on track against four relief pitchers for Southern who combined to allow just two hits over the final four innings.