TOPEKA, Kan. — A familiar and most-decidedly unwelcome visitor came back to pay a call on the Chillicothe Mudcats Saturday night. You might say it walked right in and made itself at home.
     The inability to throw strikes – a critical shortcoming in an earlier six-game stretch in which the Mudcats lost four times and fell below .500 for the season – reared its ugly head at Washburn University’s Falley Field,  leading to an 8-3 loss to the Topeka Golden Giants which snapped a six-game Mudcats winning streak.
     Four Chillicothe pitchers combined to issue 12 free passes and hit two batters to augment a modest eight-hit Topeka attack. The mix produced three-run innings in the first and eighth with a tiebreaking two-run fifth in the middle.
     The toxic mixture dropped the Mudcats’ overall record to 12-8 and their MINK League record to 9-6. Topeka, defeating Chillicothe for the second time in three meetings, moved to 12-9 overall and in league.
     "We can't play great every time,” reflected “Jud” Kindle, Mudcats head coach. “We played six in a row really good. (Saturday night) We just walked too many."