From the Southern Illinois Miners
Miners RH Zack Cooper in a recent start at Rent One Park (Miners Photo)
The Southern Illinois Miners played a scoreless first six innings against the Windy City ThunderBolts on Saturday evening as Zach Cooper and T.J. Santiago were both dealing on the mound, but a three-run surge in the seventh inning for the visitors became the difference in a 4-1 loss at Rent One Park.
Cooper was locked in from the start, and the right-hander would twirl six brilliant innings with seven strikeouts, no walks and just four hits allowed to shut down the Windy City offense. Unfortunately, Santiago (2-3) was equal to the task, allowing five hits but no walks or runs in the first six frames to the Miners as the game was knotted at 0-0 heading into the seventh.
Against Kyle Tinius (2-2), Kyle Wood and Tim Zier both singled and Corey Bass walked to lead off. Ransom LaLonde would then walk as well to force in the game’s first run and make it 1-0 after an error on a dropped pop fly in foul territory extended his at-bat. Tre Hobbs came in to make his professional debut out of the bullpen, and after a wild pitch made the score 2-0, Hobbs would get through the inning with just one more run scoring on an RBI single with two outs by Coco Johnson for a 3-0 advantage. Hobbs would also finish the game for the Miners, permitting four hits in three innings of work along with four strikeouts and one run of his own in his first game with Southern Illinois, which scored in the ninth on back-to-back doubles to make it 4-0.
The Miners would grab a run in the bottom half of the ninth inning off Brian Loconsole when Craig Massey singled to lead off and later in the inning with two outs came home on an RBI single by Craig Massoni to make it 4-1, but Southern Illinois got no closer in suffering the home defeat.
The Miners will look to avoid a sweep on Sunday in the series finale at 5:05 p.m. against the ThunderBolts, sending Chris Washington to the hill against Windy City’s Drake Robison.
The Southern Illinois Miners are the 2016 Frontier League West Division Champions, the 2014 and 2015 Frontier League East Division Champions and the 2012 Frontier League Champions. They have been awarded the Frontier League Organization of the Year award three times since their inception, and also set a new Frontier League attendance record in 2007, their inaugural season. For ticket information, contact the Rent One Park box office at (618) 998-8499. For any additional information, visit our website at www.southernillinoisminers.com.
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