NEVADA – After a promising start, the Chillicothe Mudcats reverted to their unproductive ways at the plate Saturday night.
Brett Sowers got the Mudcats going early, hitting a two-run homer in the top of the first inning, but the only other run Chillicothe would score would be on another Sowers roundtripper in the fifth inning as the Nevada Griffons rallied to beat the Mudcats, 5-3, in MINK League action.
The defeat lowered the Fish’s record to 2-5 overall, 1-5 in the league. Nevada, a league newcomer after decades in the the mostly-Kansas-based Jayhawk League, moved to 5-4 overall and 5-3 in the loop.
Third baseman Sowers accounted for all of the RBIs on the night and two of the three runs scored for the Mudcats. Matty Johnson scored the other run.
The circuit clouts were Chillicothe’s first two of the 2009 season.
A pair of newly-minted Mudcats worked the game on the hill.
Righthander Matt Lackner from Park University started and pitched seven innings. Lefthander Jake Aylward threw the final frame.
Lackner, from Kansas City, Kan., gave up 10 hits and all five runs. He didn’t have any free passes and struck out two. Aylward, from Bellevue (Neb.) University, worked scoreless bottom of the eighth in his Chillicothe debut.
Chillicothe, Mo. —
