Slammers Slide Past Miners

(Joliet, IL) – Brian Fowler outpitched Ryan Zink and the Joliet Slammers held on to beat the Southern Illinois Miners 4-3 Wednesday night.

Both teams struck with two outs in their respective halves of the first inning. In the top half of the first, Nate Hall drew a two-out walk. Then it looked like Fowler (3-1) had him picked off but Erik Lis had trouble with the transfer from glove to hand and Hall stole second. Sean Coughlin made the Slammers pay with a RBI single and it was 1-0 Southern Illinois (28-15).

With two outs and nobody on in the bottom half of the frame, Josh Flores drew a walk. Lis singled him to second and David Fox ripped a two-RBI double to give Joliet a 2-1 edge against Zink (3-2).

The base-on-balls hurt Fowler again in the third. He walked Boomer Blanchard to start the inning. Blanchard advanced to second on a groundout and went to third on a wild pitch. Eric Suttle hit a ball deep enough to center to score Blanchard and tie the game 2-2.

Joliet (24-19) answered in the fourth as Sean Estand doubled with one out. St. Francis alum. Brad Netzel singled him in to give Joliet another one-run lead.

The Slammers would get a huge insurance run in the fifth. Trey Manz drew a one-out walk. With two away he advanced to second on a wild pitch and Lis singled him home to give Joliet a 4-2 lead.

Fowler pitched well again as he went 6 1/3 innings, scattering five hits, giving up three runs, two earned, walking three and striking out five. He did run into trouble in the seventh as Tyler Bullock doubled leading off. A passed ball moved him to third and he scored on a Blanchard RBI grounder.

That was all for Fowler as Jeremy Tietze entered the game. He immediately made the crowd nervous by walking the first two batters he faced. But a 4-6-3 double play got him out of the jam.

 Chuck Lukanen got the first two outs in the eighth before walking Sean Harrell. Manager Bart Zeller brought in Brian Smith. Harrell stole second but was left stranded when Smith coaxed a grounder right back to the mound to end the inning.

Joliet native Ryan Quigley worked around a leadoff single in the ninth to earn his league best 14^th save of the year in 14 attempts.

With the win the Slammers stay a half-game back of the Windy City ThunderBolts in the East Division.

Also, everyone in attendance gets a free ticket to the next Wednesday's home game. The Slammers go for the sweep of the Miners on Thursday night.

It’s Thirsty Thursday so fans can get $1.50 draft beers at the Sweet Baby Rays stand beyond the left field fence. Also, fans may want to arrive early because the Slammers are giving away a limited supply of Budweiser pint glasses. First pitch is at 7:05 p.m. as Tommy Mendoza (1-0, 1.13 ERA) takes the hill.