Marcus Jacobs
Herald Sports Writer
August 19, 2008 10:54 am
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PEORIA, Ill. — The Clinton LumberKings bullpen couldn’t hold on late as the Peoria Chiefs took the third of a four-game home and home series, 6-5.
In the second inning, Mitch Moreland led off with infield single to second.
Justin Smoak, in his first professional at bat, walked to put runners at first and second.
Jonathan Greene took a fastball to the opposite field for the first out allowing Moreland to tag and go to third. Jose Felix bounced one back to the pitcher Casey Coleman, who air mailed a throw over the second baseman that landed in center field.
Moreland scored to give the LumberKings an early 1-0 lead.
Kyle Murphy pulled a single through the left side for the RBI single and Davis Stoneburner, who just rejoined the team after missing time for a wedding, grabbed an infield single to short loading the bases. Beltre grounded into a rare double play to end the inning.
Rebel Ridling, who has been hot for the Chiefs, put his team on the board with a two-out solo shot to left field in the bottom half of the second.
Dylan Johnston doubled to right after the home run, but Clinton starter Blake Beavan would get Jake Opitz to go down swinging to get out of the inning.
In the top of the fourth inning, Felix ground single to left. Murphy collected his second hit of the night by singling up the middle to put runners on first and second.
Stoneburner struck again as he doubled over the head of Brandon Guyer to clear the bases and gave the L-Kings the 4-1 advantage.
With one out in the seventh, Stoneburner got his third hit of the night by going the opposite way to right field. Engel Beltre finally got on the board with a base hit up the middle putting runners at first and second. Lawson lined out to first for the second out.
Smith singled to left to extend his hitting streak to 18 games and drove in Stoneburner from second to extend the lead to 5-1. The LumberKings couldn’t muster anymore runs after Moreland grounded out to second to end the frame.
Blake Beavan would be taken out of the game, handing the ball over to Jorge Quintero. Beavan went six dazzling innings with the second frame being his only troubled inning. Beavan struck out five and walked one while only giving up three hits in getting the no decision.
Justin Smoak got his first professional base hit by coming up just short of a home run, hitting the base of the wall in right to lead off the eighth, but the LumberKings couldn’t get a run across in the inning.
Quintero had some trouble in the eighth when he didn’t make it out of the inning as he gave up a run and left with runners on the corners.
Ryan Turner came on and gave up a sharp single to Johnston to cut the lead to 5-3 for the L-Kings. Turner would get the LumberKings out of the inning and both runs were charged to Quintero.
Turner came back out to close the deal in the ninth and couldn‘t. Jonathan Wyatt led off with a double to left and Nate Samson lined a single over the head of Stoneburner at short to put runners on the corners.
Clinton pitching coach Danny Clark came out to talk to the lefty. After the talk Turner gave up a triple to Jovan Rosa tying the game at five.
With the infield playing in, Brandon Guyer grounded out to Lawson at second for the first out. Luis Bautista then shot a single over the drawn in infield to score Rosa giving the Chiefs the 6-5 win.
On the night, the big switch hitting first baseman Smoak went 1-for-3 with a double and a walk.
“Like I’ve said all along, its feels good playing again all I want to do is go out and have fun” said Smoak.
Michael Kirkman will make the start tonight for the LumberKings starting at 7 p.m.
CHIEFS 6, LUMBERKINGS 5
CLINTON PEORIA
ab r h bi ab r h bi
Beltre cf 5 0 1 0 Wyatt rf 5 1 3 0
Lawson 2b 5 0 0 0 Samson ss 4 1 1 0
Smith, T lf 4 0 1 1 Rosa 3b 4 2 2 2
Moreland dh 4 1 1 0 Guyer cf 5 0 1 0
Smoak 1b 3 1 1 0 Bautista 1b 5 1 1 1
Greene 3b 4 0 0 0 Ridling lf 4 1 2 2
Felix, J c 4 1 1 1 Johnston dh 3 0 2 1
Murphy, K rf 4 1 2 1 Opitz 2b 4 0 1 0
Stoneburner ss 4 1 3 2 Flores c 3 0 0 0
Beavan p 0 0 0 0 Mercedes c 1 0 0 0
Quintero p 0 0 0 0 Coleman p 0 0 0 0
Turner p 0 0 0 0 Siegried p 0 0 0 0
Vento p 0 0 0 0
Totals 37 5 10 5 38 6 13 6
Clinton 020 200 100 —5
Peoria 010 000 023 —6
E—Coleman. DP—Peoria 1. LOB—Clinton 6, Peoria 10. 2B—Stoneburner, Smoak, Johnston, Wyatt. 3B—Rosa. HR—Ridling.
IP H R ER BB SO
Clinton
Beavan 6 3 1 1 2 5
Quintero 1 1/3 5 2 2 1 1
Turner (L, 5-3) 1 5 3 3 0 0
Peoria
Coleman 5 6 4 3 1 4
Siegfried 2 3 1 1 0 1
Vento (W, 7-4) 2 1 0 0 0 2
WP—Quintero. Time—2:31. Attendance—2,747.
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