Marcus Jacobs
Herald Sports Writer
August 20, 2008 10:52 am
—
PEORIA, Ill. — The Clinton LumberKings were sporting a record of 0-5 at O’Brien field in Peoria, Ill.
On Tuesday, it was déjà vu all over again as the LumberKings saw their late inning lead disappear once again.
This time Matt Lawson had the huge at bat in the tenth with the game winning home run as the LumberKings took the game 5-4 over Midwest League rival Peoria.
Chiefs lead-off man Jonathan Wyatt led off the first with an infield single with Lawson’s throw to first missing the mark. Nate Samson bunted to the left side of the diamond to move Wyatt into scoring position. Wyatt eventually stole third to move himself within 90 feet.
The stolen base proved to be key as Wyatt scored on a wild pitch by Clinton starter Michael Kirkman.
Brandon Guyer singled off the glove of Kirkman with two outs and Luis Bautista worked a walk to move up the runners.
Clinton pitching Coach Danny Clark came out to give Kirkman a pep talk and after the mound visit Kirkman got the hot hitting Rebel Ridling to go down looking for the third out.
Mitch Moreland led off the second with a screaming liner over the head of the shortstop Samson.
Justin Smoak followed with his second hit of the season by singling to right. Jonathan Greene made a productive out by flying out to right as Moreland tagged and went to third. Cristian Santana, who had the night off in the previous game, hit a grounder to short that got under the glove of Samson allowing Moreland to score and tie the game at one.
Jose Felix grounded out to first to move the runners to second and third. Davis Stoneburner went down swinging to end the threat.
In the second, the Chiefs regained the lead with two outs as right fielder Jonathan Wyatt delivered the RBI single.
Dylan Johnston led off the bottom of the fourth with a jammed single in which Stoneburner at short almost made the bare handed play. Johnston went to second on the third wild pitch by Kirkman and right after the wild pitch Kirkman uncorked a wild throw to second on the attempted pick off play.
Jake Opitz dribbled a grounder to first and couldn’t score Johnston from third. Luis Flores drove in Johnston with a sac fly to left that put the Chiefs up by two.
Santana led off the fifth with a walk.
Felix reached on ground single that just got passed the second baseman. The LumberKings played station to station as Stoneburner singled hard to left to load the bases. Engel Beltre chopped a high bouncer to first where Bautisa’s only play was at second.
Santana scored on the fielder’s choice to cut the lead to one. The next pitch Lawson grounded in the hole on the left side of the field to score Felix to tie the game up at three. Lawson was caught stealing to end the top of the frame.
Kirkman struggled early on, but settled down in going six innings and giving up three runs and striking out four in the no decision.
Kirkman gave way to Julio Santana in the seventh, who came out and sat down the Chiefs in order.
Stoneburner led off the eighth with an 0-2 slow grounder to short for the infield single. Beltre put down the sac bunt down the first base side to move Stoneburner into scoring position. On consecutive play Lawson put down a bunt back to the pitcher in which he slipped and Lawson gathered the second infield single. The next batter, Tim Smith, who had an 18-game hit streak coming into the game, grounded right to the first baseman. The Chiefs defense couldn’t turn the double play as Stoneburner came home to score to give the LumberKings their first lead of the game.
Adalberto Flores came on to close the game out for the LumberKings after Santana went two perfect innings.
Ridling led off the ninth with a walk and was taken out of the game for a pinch runner. The pinch runner Josh Harrison would take second during the Johnston at bat. Johnston made the first out by popping out to the first baseman Smoak.
Jake Opitz’ soft liner to Greene at third was the second out, brining the Chiefs to their final out. Luis Flores lined a double off the wall to left to score the tying from second.
In the extra frame, Lawson jacked the solo home run to left with two outs to put the LumberKings up by one.
Flores got the first out of the tenth, but the defensive play of the game came when Guyer stepped up and grounded to Greene at third. The ball richocheted off his glove and right to Stoneburner at short, whose throw was in time to get Guyer at first. Harrison would fly out deep to right to Kyle Murphy to get the victory 5-4.
The LumberKings will take the day off Wednesday, but will be back in action on Thursday night when they start a four-game series with Kane County. First pitch is set for 7 p.m.
LUMBERKINGS 5, CHIEFS 4
CLINTON PEORIA
ab r h bi ab r h bi
Beltre cf 4 0 0 1 Wyatt rf 4 1 2 1
Lawson 2b 5 1 2 2 Samson ss 3 0 0 0
Smith, T rf-lf 5 0 0 1 Rosa 3b 5 0 0 0
Moreland dh 4 1 2 0 Guyer cf 5 0 2 0
Smoak 1b 4 0 1 0 Bautista 1b 4 0 2 0
Greene 3b 4 0 0 0 Ridling lf 3 0 0 0
Santana, C lf 3 1 1 1 Harrison pr-2b 1 1 0 0
Murphy, K pr-rf 0 0 0 0 Johnston dh 4 1 1 0
Felix, J c 4 1 1 0 Opitz 2b-lf 4 0 0 0
Stoneburner ss 4 1 2 0 Flores c 3 1 2 2
Kirkman p 0 0 0 0 Santana p 0 0 0 0
Santana, J p 0 0 0 0 Muschko p 0 0 0 0
Flores p 0 0 0 0 Muller p 0 0 0 0
Totals 38 5 9 4 36 4 9 3
Clinton 010 020 010 —5
Peoria 110 100 001 —4
E—Felix, J, Samson. DP—Peoria 1. LOB—Clinton 4, Peoria 8. 2B—Santana, C, Bautista, Guyer, Flores. HR—Lawson. SB—Harrison, Flores, Wyatt 3. CS—Lawson, Bautista. S—Beltre, Samson. SF—Flores.
IP H R ER BB SO
Clinton
Kirkman 6 7 3 3 2 4
Santana, J 2 0 0 0 0 1
Flores (W, 4-1) 2 2 1 1 1 0
Peoria
Santana 6 5 3 3 1 3
Muschko 3 3 1 1 0 1
Muller (L, 0-1) 1 1 1 1 0 1
HBP—Wyatt. WP—Kirkman 3. Time—2:33. Attendance—2,001.
Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.