Beach Bums Beat Up And Shut Down Slammers

The Traverse City Beach Bums (31-29) scored four runs in the third and six more in the fifth to put the Joliet Slammers (33-26) away by a final score of 10-0 Tuesday night.

Despite the loss, the Slammers remained in first place, a half-game ahead of the Windy City ThunderBolts in the East Division.

Starter Ryne Miller cruised through the first two innings but ran into trouble in the third.

He walked the lead-off man and gave up a single to John Parham. A hit by pitch, a walk, and another hit by pitch made it 2-0 Traverse City.

One out later a fielder’s choice scored another run and Miller continued to have issues with his control as he uncorked a wild pitch to make it 4-0 Traverse City.

After an easy fourth inning, the Beach Bums chased Miller in the fifth.

Zack Pace walked and Matt Brown singled on a hit-and-run to start the inning, putting runners at the corners. One out later another walk loaded the bases and Jose Vargas singled in two runs and it was 6-0.

Jeff Flag proceeded to put the game completely out of reach with a grand slam and that was it for Miller.

Miller took his first loss with the Slammers as he went 4 1/3rd innings, giving up 10 runs, all earned, on only four hits, walking five and striking out four.

Joliet and Traverse City both ended up with six hits, but the Slammers managed no runs in the game.

The Slammers look to bounce back Wednesday night against Lake Erie as Andrew Moss (2-3, 4.20 ERA) takes the mound.