Sunday, June 26 (WEEK 9)

BATS TALLY 7 RUNS IN SECOND INNING; HOLD ON TO DEFEAT WHITE SOXX, 12-7 

WOODSTOCK — After the Marauders dropped the Bats to 1-5 with a Friday night 15-0 drubbing, the last-place club was in desperate need of a victory against the White Soxx on Sunday.  The Bats responded with a 12-hit offensive salvo and a 12-7 win in an early morning game at Emricson park.  The Bats (2-5) picked up a full-game on the third-place White Soxx (2-4) in the process.

For the first time this season the Bats hung double digits up on the scoreboard thanks largely to a 7-run second inning highlighted by John Eisenmenger’s two-out 3-run bases-loaded double to break a 1-1 tie.  Rob Matassa followed that with his second double of the game to give the Bats a 5-1 lead.  The Bats went on to score 2 more runs in the inning to up their lead to 8-1.

Eisenmenger pitched the entire game for the Bats surrendering just 2 runs (1 earned) on 3 hits in the first five innings as the Bats built up a 10-2 lead.  He would end up allowing 7 runs (2 earned) on 9 hits with 5 strikeouts in picking up his first win of the season.  The Bats committed 6 errors behind the right hander, including 3 in the White Soxx 4-run sixth inning when they closed the gap to 12-6.

The White Sox applied more pressure in the seventh when a double by Greg Goldstein made it 12-7.  The threat was somewhat quelled, however, when Eisenmenger struck out Jose Torrez and Bats catcher Tom Paul made a perfect throw to Tony DiBlasi to double up Goldstein trying to steal third.  Eisenmenger ended the game with his fifth strikeout to seal the Bats victory.

Two Bats players had 3 hits apiece as Tom Klauba and Matassa each went 3-for-4 to pace the hitting attack.  Six other players had one hit each while 8 players had RBIs for the Bats.  Besides the 12 hits the Bats were also gifted 7 walks (3 by Matt Weiss) and one hit batter, DiBlasi, for the second game in a row.

The Bats (2-5) next game will be at 7:30 PM on Friday, July 8 against the Marauders at Plote Field in Lake in the Hills, Ill. 

BATS DROPPINGS

The Bats have now played the White Soxx 8 times over the last two seasons and are 4-4 against them.  Prior to the 2021 season the Bats had defeated the White Soxx only 3 times in 26 games since 2004 in the 50s division …. For the second game in a row Tony DiBlasi was hit by a pitch giving him 2 this season.  Since the Bats joined the 50-and-older division in 2004, DiBlasi has been plunked more often (40 times) than any other Bats player.  The next closest on the career list is Randy Harris with only 12 ….  After having no extra-base hits in their first 5 games, the Bats have collected 5 XBH (4 doubles and 1 HR) in their last two games …. The Bats are hitting .273 as a team with 50 hits in 7 games (7.1 hits per game).  Last season the Bats batted .311 as a team in 19 contests while averaging 9.7 hits per game.