BATS STAGE LATE COMEBACK TO OUTLAST MARAUDERS, 9-6

McHENRY — The Bats used a 5-run fourth inning to oust the first-place Marauders, 9-6, on Friday night at Peterson Park after twice falling behind by 4 runs in the first three innings.  The win moved the Bats (7-5) to within 2 games of the Marauders (8-2) and tied with the White Soxx (6-4).

For the second game in a row the Bats and right-hander Greg Kaczmarek spotted their opponent 4 runs in the bottom of the first inning as the Marauders sent 9 men to the plate enroute to a 4-0 lead.  The Bats got a couple of those runs back in the top of the second compliments of a sacrifice fly to left field by Harry Mielke and a bases loaded walk by John Reincke. 

The Marauders converted a couple of walks into 2 runs in the bottom of the third to take a 6-2 lead.  With those 2 runs already in the Marauders continued to load the bases with only one out, but Kaczmarek avoided further damage with a foul out to third baseman Tom Klauba and a strikeout to end the inning.

Kaczmarek seemed to put a spark in his Bats teammates in the fourth inning when he led off with a double, stole third and continued home on an errant throw to cut the Marauders lead to 6-3. Matt Weiss followed with a single, stole second and scored one out later on Mielke’s RBI single to make it 6-4.  Jeff McClellan then hit a ground ball to shortstop which forced Mielke at second, but his hustle down the line prevented an inning ending double play and kept the Bats alive.  Mike Steffy and Reincke coaxed a couple of walks to load the bases with 2 outs for Earl Blankenship.  The Bats centerfielder came through with an RBI single scoring McClellan, but a mishandling of the ball allowed the other two runners to scamper home giving the Bats a 7-6 advantage.

The Bats picked up a couple of insurance runs in the fifth on an RBI triple by John Eisenmenger, scoring Klauba, and an RBI groundout by Weiss, scoring Eisenmenger, to make it 9-6.

The Marauders were held scoreless over the final four innings thanks to a combination of clutch pitching and clutch fielding.  Each inning had a key defensive play to prevent runs from scoring, including sensational inning-ending plays in the fifth and sixth.  In the fifth, with runners on second and third, Mielke made a sprawling catch at first base on a throw in the dirt to end the inning.  In the sixth Blankenship snagged a hard-hit drive to centerfield with the bases loaded for the inning’s last out.  The Marauders left the bases loaded again in the seventh to finish the game with a total of 16 runners left on base, including 12 stranded in scoring position.

Kaczmarek (5-2) picked up the complete game victory despite allowing 13 hits with 5 walks and 2 hit batsmen.  He got the big outs when he needed them, including 6 strikeouts, 8 ground ball outs and 3 infield pop ups, to frustrate the Marauders all night long.

The Bats next game is scheduled for 9:30 AM on Sunday, July 25 against the Angels at Plote Field in Lake in the Hills, Ill.  The Bats are preparing to showcase their vaunted 99-Defense in that game.

BATS DROPPINGS

The Bats 7-5 record matches their best start after 12 games accomplished only once back in 2004  …  The Marauders had never lost to the Bats on the field before Friday night’s game.  Known as the Intimidators from 2007-13, they forfeited a game to the Bats in 2010, but on the field the Marauders/Intimidators were 29-0 against the Bats/Diamondbacks franchise  …  Earl Blankenship became the fourth Bats player to play in at least 60 straight games and is tied with Tim Scotellaro (60) for the third longest such streak.  Just ahead of Earl is Ron Skrabacz (62) and then Don Gragnani (113)  …  Catcher Tom Paul threw out his first base runner attempting to steal second in the second inning aided by a great catch and tag by second baseman Rob Matassa  …  John Eisenmenger’s fifth-inning triple extended his hitting streak to 10 straight games  …  Tom Klauba became the seventh Bats player to collect at least 20 hits in a season, a feat accomplished 12 times by those seven players.  His 3 hits gave him 21 on the year  …  Earl Blankenship was beginning to feel like the Maytag repairman out in centerfield after going 42 innings in CF without a putout before his inning-ending catch in the fourth.  He didn’t have to wait as long, however, for his next putout — a huge catch to end the sixth inning with the bases loaded  …  Mike Steffy became the third Bats player this season with at least 3 walks in a game joining Matt Weiss (twice) and Tom Paul.