Sunday, June 4 (WEEK 6)

The Bats (1-3) suffered a disapponting 11-7 loss to the Lightning (1-3-1) after building up a 7-5 lead late in the game.  The loss was the Bats third in a row after opening the season with a victory over the same Lightning team.

Bats starting pitcher Mike Hareng left the game after four innings with the score tied, 5-5, but stood to come away with the win after the Bats scored twice in the top of the fifth.  The southpaw hurler allowed only 3 hits in his 4 innings of work, but also gave up 2 walks and hit 2 batters.  Three of those free passes eventually came around to score to keep the Lightning in the game.

The Bats took advantage of some Lightning generosity as well in the first and second innings.  In the first Kevin Molbeck reached on an error and came around to score following a single by Don Gragnani, a walk to Matt Weiss, and an RBI hit by pitch by John Moulchin to pull within 1 run.

In the second inning Earl Blankenship lifted a fly ball to center field that was dropped allowing Bill Quoss to score from second and tie the score at 2-2.  Quoss had singled and moved up to second on Tony DiBlasi's single.  The Bats took a 4-2 lead in the top of the third on RBI singles by Hareng and Ron Skrabacz before the Lightning struck for 3 fourth-inning tallies to move ahead, 5-4.

The Bats scored 3 runs in the top of the fifth, all with 2 outs, to retake the lead, 7-5.  Hareng picked up his second RBI of the game with a double for the first run.  Quoss drove in a run when he got hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and DiBlasi followed that with an RBI single to stretch the lead to 2 runs.

Moulchin came in to pitch the fifth in relief of Hareng and fell victim to the Bats inability to make the plays behind him in the infield.  The Lightning scored 2 runs in their half of the fifth make it 7-7, then added 4 runs in the sixth to put the game away.

With 22 base runners in the game the Bats were not without their scoring opportunities.  They logged 11 hits, 5 walks, 2 HBP, with 4 others reaching on errors.  However, just as the defense was unable to convert all the batted balls into outs, the offense was unable to convert enough base runners into actual runs.

The Bats next game will be on Friday, June 9 at 8 p.m. against the Marauders at Plote Field in Lake in the Hills, Ill. 

BATS DROPPINGS

The Bats left the bases loaded four times leading to a total of 15 runners left on base.  That is the most runners the Bats have left on base since leaving 16 aboard in a 14-6 loss to the White Sox on May 2, 2010 ...... John Moulchin's third-inning double was his 20th extra base hit as a Bat.  His 20 extra-base hits include 14 doubles and 6 home runs. ,,,,,, Don Gragnani's first inning single extended his hitting streak to 15 games including an 11-game streak to end last season. ...  Gragnani's 15-game hitting streak is the second longest in Bats history behind Ken Kozlik (16 games), both over two seasons. .... Matt Weiss and Gragnani remain as the only Bats players to collect at least one hit in each of the Bats first four games this season ... Despite 90-degree heat Gragnani extended his consecutive games caught streak to 101 games covering 640 innings and 3,797  batters.