Miners Win Third In A Row, Knock Off Traverse City

(Courtesy Southern Illinois Miners; Photo Credit: Jonathan LeBlond)

The Southern Illinois Miners fell behind on three different occasions in the first four innings, but rallied back each time before breaking through in the seventh inning and edging the Traverse City Beach Bums 6-5 on Fridaynight at Rent One Park.

With the bases loaded and one out, Steve Marino drove in the eventual winning run on a sacrifice fly to left-center in the seventh inning. That made a winner of David Kubiak (3-1), one of four Miners relievers to pitch well in relief of starter Tyler Lavigne. Matt Crim worked four innings of one-run ball, striking out six and starting a stretch of 13-straight Beach Bums batters retired that spanned the fifth through the ninth innings against Crim, Kubiak, Stew Brase and Derrick Miramontes.

Offensively, the Miners plated three in the second to take a 3-1 lead on an RBI double by Matt Howard and a two-run home run by Phil Butler. The Beach Bums would come back with three of their own in the third before Chris Burke’s sac-fly tied it up at 4-4. Traverse City would take the lead again with a run in the fourth, but again the Miners would tie it on a sacrifice fly. Ryan Cavan did the deed that inning to make it 5-5.

Miramontes would come in and strike out the side for his ninth save of the season, stranding the bases loaded after Traverse City got two singles and a hit batter with one out. The right-hander would fan the next two batters, however, to seal the win in front of a season-best crowd of 4,678 fans at Rent One Park.

Every starter except one had at least one hit in the contest for Southern Illinois, which put up double-digit hits on the board for the third straight game. Howard and Butler led the charge at the bottom of the order with two hits apiece, with Butler driving in two as well.

The Miners and Beach Bums will play the middle game of their three-game series in Marion on Saturday night at 6:05 p.m. Rick Teasley will pitch for the Miners against Traverse City’s Casey Delgado.

The Southern Illinois Miners are the 2012 Frontier League Champions and have been awarded the Frontier League Organization of the Year award three times since their inception. They also set a new Frontier League attendance record in 2007, their inaugural season. For ticket information, please contact the Rent One Park box office at 618-998-8499. For any additional information, visit our website at www.southernillinoisminers.com.