Having had an eight-game winning streak halted Friday night in a non-league game, the Chillicothe Mudcats established a new one in another non-league outing Sunday.
Using a four-run rally in the fourth inning, after being no-hit the first three, to erase a 3-0 deficit, the Mudcats boosted their season record to 12-7 with a 5-4 triumph over the Regal Plastics Rebels of Kansas City. That gave them back-to-back wins, following Saturday's
7-2 league victory over Sedalia.
Chillicothe is on the road to-night, visiting the MINK League North Division-leading Topeka (Kan.) Golden Giants. First pitch is slated for 7 p.m.
The Mudcats will turn around and host the Golden Giants in a big 6:05 p.m. doubleheader tomorrow.
Getting his second start of the season, both coming in non-league home games, hometown product Colin Parker kept the bases heavily populated with Plastics people, but never folded up shop and kept his team in the game until the offense came around.
In a four-inning stint that consumed 70 pitches, the Chillicothe righthander yielded only three runs – all earned – on six hits, three walks, and a hit batter. The Rebels left seven men on – six in scoring position – against him.
Because Parker didn't let things get out of hand, when portly Regal Plastics lefty starter Mac Shelby hit a rough patch in the fourth, the Mudcats got in front.
Pitching ace Tyler Minto, getting his first start at first base and hitting third in a gerry-rigged lineup as several regulars were rested, got the first Fish hit, a sharp grounder through the hole into left opening the Chillicothe fourth.
Amrein, starting as the designated hitter, bounced the next pitch through the hole on the other side of the infield and another left-handed hitter, Richie Mascheri, ripped a liner to the right side that had Amrein dodging as it went through for a bases-filling single.
J.L. Jones rolled to the shortstop for a forceout at second, but easily beat the double-play relay attempt as Minto crossed the plate to put Chillicothe on the board.
Catcher Jason Dennis then pounded a grounder that ticked off the third baseman's glove on its way into left field for an RBI hit and Bryan Mason, who'd picked up his first run batted in of the season  in Saturday night's league win over Sedalia, got his second by spanking an opposite-way liner between the third baseman and the bag for a tying single.
The inning then seemed certain to end with the game tied, but the right fielder bumped into center fielder Johnny Villoti as they settled under the high fly in right-center by Darian Sandford. The impact let the ball drop out of Villoti's glove for an error as Dennis scored the go-ahead run.
Given the numer of pitches Parker already had thrown and the extra stress of working with so many men in scoring position, Steyer chose to bring in tall lefthander Amrein, who was DH-ing, for his second pitching appearance.
The change went well as the Lake Villa, Ill., resident, despite issuing a couple of walks, worked three shutout innings with the one-run lead before the Mudcats doubled their margin.
In the seventh, Mason led off a hit off the glove of the diving second baseman and scampered to third when Brian Fisher, after fighting off a couple of two-strike pitches, slapped a single to the right of the first baseman who was holding Mason on.
Minto followed with his second hit, a looping liner over the shortstop's head, to push the Chillicothe advantage to 5-3.
That extra run proved important as the Rebels from Kansas City nicked Amrein for their fourth tally in the eighth. A leadoff single became a run, thanks to a subsequent walk, a wild pitch, and a one-out groundout. The Chillicothe hurler then kept his club in front with his third strikeout to end the inning.
Righthander John Creely, primarily a catcher, but used some as a pitcher by the Elgin (Ill.) Community College Spartans, came in to start the ninth on the hill for the Mudcats and earned the save.
After jumping ahead 0-2 on the first man he faced, he walked the potential tying run aboard and then a ground ball single that slipped under the glove of a diving, drawn-in Jones at third.
A sacrifice bunt moved both the tying and go-ahead runs into scoring position, but the Chillicothe reliever got the next man to fan on a low pitch.
That put it up to Josh Clements, who already was three for four. Facing Creely for the first time, however, he managed only a shallow fly to right which Mascheri squeezed to wrap up the Mudcats' 12th victory overall and sixth in seven home outings.
Statistically, the contest was about as even as the final score.
Each club collected nine hits and had one hit batsman. The Mudcats struck out six times, one less than the Rebels, who had a 7-4 advantage in walks drawn. There was one error on each side.