Slammers Knot Championship Series at a Game Apiece

The Slammers made the best-of-five championship series into a best-of-three as they prevailed Friday night to knot it at a game apiece.

The Slammers fell behind 1-0 but back-to-back home runs from Brad Netzel and Hector Pellot combined with outstanding pitching gave the Slammers the 3-1 victory.

River City grabbed the lead off Tommy Mendoza in the second inning but the former Angels farmhand settled down and went five innings, scattering five hits, giving up the lone run, walking one and striking out two as he picked up his second win of the playoffs.

It was the Slammer’s power that helped give him that victory. Frontier League Starting Pitcher of the Year Josh Lowey was cruising until the fourth inning. That’s when Netzel crushed a pitch over the left-center field wall and Pellot followed with an even more mammoth shot to put the Slammers up 2-1.

They didn’t look back as Chuck Lukanen, Billy Petrick, Brian Smith, and Ryan Quigley combined to throw four scoreless innings out of the bullpen.

Quigley picked up his fourth postseason save as Joliet pulled off the split at T.R. Hughes Ballpark.

Joliet returns home for games three and four of the series Saturday and Sunday. Jeremy Tietze takes the mound Saturday. First pitch is at 6:05 p.m.