KEARNEY — Andrew Dunn from Southern Illinois University (Carbondale) gave the Chillicothe Mudcats their second complete game of the young season with a five-hitter in an 11-1 triumph over the Fellowship of Christian Athletes Grays in the first game of their Saturday afternoon and evening doubleheader. Another less-than-confidence-inspiring performance by the Fish’s bullpen in the nightcap cost them a sweep of the twinbill, a 7-6 defeat keeping them at .500 in the early going of league action.
Chillicothe then suffered another postponement Sunday night, its slated contest at Clarinda, Iowa, rained out.
Never trailing in the opener, thanks to four-straight, two-out hits produced three runs in the top of the first inning and righthander Dunn, the Mudcats led game two 4-1 in the third and 5-4 in the fourth, but couldn’t hang on.
After a poor baserunning decision by the Grays on a leadoff dropped fly ball resulted in the batter being thrown out at second in a 6-6 game, Chillicothe closer Corey Theriot then walked the next batter and, after a tap to third advanced that man to second with two outs, uncorked a wild pitch which put the potential winning run at third. Going to 3-1 on FCA’s Matt Horton, who already was two for three, Theriot intentionally threw a fourth ball to bring up leadoff man Brian Kolb. However, Chillicothe’s nominal closer plunked Kolb to fill the bases.
Not surprisingly, Grays head coach Jake McKinley opted to lift Stu Schlemeyer, who was zero for five on the day, for a pinch-hitter, but his choice of a substitute was a surprise. Josh Weaver was sent up to try to win it, even though he struck out all three times he’d batted in the first game.
Weaver was able to put the ball in play this time, but the fact that he didn’t make solid contact worked in his and FCA’s favor. A slow tap toward shortstop couldn’t be fielded by Andy Cotton in time to get Weaver at first as David Hardt crossed the dish to salvage the split.
The opener of the Mudcats’ first of several doubleheaders this year contained most of the good news.
Dunn (1-1) was the biggest factor, retiring the last seven men in order and walking only one Gray while whiffing six.
The only run he yielded came in the fourth on back-to-back singles to open the inning and Landis Wilson’s forceout grounder in a first-and-third situation with no outs.
The only other FCA threat had been back in the first inning when the same two Grays who got the scoring frame started – Jon Ubbenga and Tanner Biagini – singled with two outs. Dunn got Wilson on strikes to allow the Mudcats to sustain the momentum they’d built in the top of the first.
In the Chillicothe first, Bubby Williams, Dominic D’Anna, and Tyler Knight strung together two-out singles to get the scoring started. Luke Schlechte, he of the .500 batting average starting the day, followed with a shot over the head of the center fielder to plate two more for a 3-0 cushion with which Dunn could start his day.
After FCA nicked the Chillicothe hurler for its run in the bottom of the fourth, the Mudcats got that back with help from their hosts.
In what Mudcats head coach “Jud” Kindle surely hopes was the start of a long-awaited revival by his preferred leadoff hitter, speedy Matty Johnson, beat out a tap to the first baseman for a hit. It was just the switch-hitter’s fourth hit of the season, as he commenced play Saturday only three for 31 (.097).
TS Reed bunted Johnson along and the speedster aggressively tagged and advanced on Williams’ fly to deep left. That allowed him to score when D’Anna’s grounder to second went between the legs of the FCA infielder for an error and an unearned run.
The Mudcats then put the game way out of reach against mountainous (6’8”, 290) Grays reliever Joe Elowitz in the seventh.
Reed took advantage of Elowitz’ lack of nimbleness by bunting to the first base side of the mound and easily beating everyone to the bag with one out. The diminutive Cal State-Northridge second baseman then stole second and darted home easily on Williams’ single to center. It was the eighth RBI of the season for the Mudcats’ top run producer thus far.
D’Anna followed with a double to right on which Williams hustled all the way around to score, making it 6-1. Knight grounded out, but things really went south for Elowitz at that juncture. He walked Schlechte and then hit Aaron Conway, Cole Mazurek, and Kyle Zimmerman in succession. The last two forced home more runs.
That brought Johnson, who had grounded out to start the inning, back to the dish and the Crowder College whippet cranked a shot over the head of the right fielder for a three-run triple. His first runs batted in of the season gave Chillicothe a 10-run lead, which Dunn made the winning margin.
After FCA used a leadoff hit batsman, first sacker D’Anna’s fumble of Schlemeyer’s sacrifice bunt attempt, another sacrifice bunt, and third baseman Williams’ throwing error to home plate as he tried to cut down Kolb to get the scoring underway in the first inning of the second game, the Mudcats made it look like their offensive productivity of the opener would carry over.
Facing lefthander Chad Culpepper, Chillicothe got consecutive one-out singles by Mazurek, Cotton, and Johnson to tie the game in the top of the second. With runners at first and third, Reed’s fly ball to medium center field looked to be good enough to give the visitors the lead as Cotton darted home ahead of the throw toward the plate. However, the Grays then threw the ball to third base and, on appeal, Cotton was ruled out for having left the bag before the catch. Kindle contested what turned out to be a critical call briefly, given the game’s eventual 1-run outcome, but to no effect.
Mudcats starting pitcher Lance Guidroz stranded FCA runners at second and third in the second, pitching around his fielders’ third error of the game in the process, and Chillicothe made a bid to seize control.
D’Anna drew his second-straight walk with one out in the third and came all the way home as Knight plugged the gap in right-center with a double. The Texas A&M outfielder’s second RBI of the game bumped his season total up to eight, passing Williams and D’Anna for the team lead.
With two out, Conway grounded a hit through the hole into left to score Knight from third and Mazurek drove in his third run of the year with a double down the left field line, Conway coming around from first to make it
4-1, Chillicothe.
Staked to the lead, Guidroz couldn’t handle the prosperity. Yielding a single and two doubles to three of the first four hitters in the FCA third, he was lifted after hitting the No. 8 man in the FCA order with two out. However, with the chance to preserve a 4-3 lead by getting the first man he faced out, struggling reliever Eric Darkow couldn’t. Horton’s sinking liner to right dropped in just in front of Schlechte and the game was knotted again.
An error on Johnson’s leadoff grounder to short turned into Chillicothe’s last lead when Reed slapped a double up the alley in right-center to score him. With a chance to tack on even more with the productive heart of its order coming up against a faltering Culpepper, Chillicothe didn’t as Williams, D’Anna, and Knight couldn’t get Reed home from second. As with the abrupt end to the second inning on the tag-up play at third, the failure to add more runs became costly later.
Given the opportunity to become a winner, Darkow deserved a better fate than to leave trailing 6-5 after the FCA fourth.
After setting down the first two batters, he was touched for Ubbenga’s and Biagini’s third set of consecutive hits of the day. As Ubbenga started toward third on a subsequent pitch, the University of Missouri redshirt-freshman-to-be was called for a balk to put two men in scoring position. Cotton, playing shortstop as normal starter Zimmerman rested for the first time this summer, couldn’t make a backhand play on Wilson’s hard-hit ball and Ubbenga scored the tying run on the fourth of five Mudcats miscues in the game. Chris Lucius followed with a hit to right and the Grays had their original one-run lead back after four.
It didn’t last long again, though. Schlechte went the other way to double over the head of the FCA left fielder to open the Mudcats’ fifth. A wild pitch moved him up 90 feet and Conway’s fly to left was easily deep enough for the tying run to score at 6-6 without a play.
With the scheduled seven-inning game tied, Kindle and pitching coach/assistant Jason Nold gambled and went to Theriot, hoping to get three innings out of him only two days after he thrown two innings and given up two runs in the ninth as the Mac-N-Seitz Athletics rallied to forge a 4-4 tie before rain forced a suspension of action.
The Louisianan threw well enough for the first two innings, although he needed Mazurek gunning down a would-be basestealer with one out in the fifth to avoid a tiebreaking run in that inning.
However, after the Mudcats stranded Reed at third with one out in the sixth against Ben Shockey, FCA’s third pitcher who ended up the winner, Theriot lost his sharpness and the game in the bottom of the seventh.
Statistically Saturday, Chillicothe’s top offensive performances were Johnson’s 3-for-8 day with four runs driven in and two scored and Mazurek’s 3-for-6 effort with three RBIs, all while catching all 14 innings. The win in the opener saw everyone in the Mudcats lineup score at least once.
For the Fellowship of Christian Athletes club from Kansas City, shortstop Ubbenga was two for three in each game and scored three runs, while Biagini was four for seven with two runs scored. Five Grays had two hits each in the game two victory in which Chillicothe’s three pitchers failed to notch any strikeouts. Three of FCA’s game-two runs were unearned.
NOTES:  Although he had three chances, Chillicothe first baseman and cleanup hitter D’Anna did not drive in a run in the second game Saturday. That ended what likely is a team-record stretch of seven games in a row with an RBI. … Johnson’s three hits Saturday matched his entire total for the Mudcats’ previous seven games. The 3-for-8 performance boosted his batting average 57 points to .154. … Chillicothe was without catcher Dallas Hord Saturday. According to Kindle, he was taking care of some summer-school coursework.