Playing essentially for their division championship lives in scorching heat Saturday, the Chillicothe Mudcats registered not one, not two, but three critical MINK League victories in a potpourri of styles.
Their 9-2, 3-0, and 5-3 triumphs over Excelsior Springs' Cougars catapulted them back onto the heels of the reinvigorated North Division leaders, the St. Joseph Mustangs (who defeated Ozark in a single game, but still lost a game in the standings to Chillicothe). Heading into Sunday's play, which has Chillicothe at Clarinda, Iowa, for a 7:30 p.m. contest and the Mustangs in a non-league game, Chillicothe (23-13, 21-13 MINK) is back within a half-game of the Mustangs (29-16, 23-14 MINK) and ahead in the "lost" column.
Following up Friday's loss at St. Joseph with two defeats against Diamond Spirit at Omaha Saturday night, former division leader Clarinda (20-15) suddenly has tumbled to third place. The A's and Mustangs don't play again, meaning the Iowans don't control their own destiny.
Chillicothe does control its, with two games left against both St. Joe and Clarinda. If the Mudcats were to beat very long odds and win out through Thursday's rainout-makeup with Clarinda, they'd be the North champs without having to make up their rained-out doubleheader at Ozark (tentatively next Friday).
Since he was not needed despite Saturday's lengthy, draining proceedings, it is anticipated righthander Derek McGowan will make the start on the mound for Chillicothe at Clarinda Sunday night. He went the distance to beat the A's in Iowa last Monday.
After the first game of their slated doubleheader at Excelsior Springs Friday was halted in the fourth of seven scheduled innings by lightning and then heavy rain, since they were due to visit the Cougars Saturday anyway, the Mudcats waited out what effectively was a 21-hour rain delay before completing the contest.
Ahead 6-0 when the action was interrupted, Chillicothe got clutch relief pitching from lefthander Jake Aylward (3-0) after the Cougars climbed back within 6-2 and had the potential tying run at home plate shortly after Saturday's resumption.
Aylward rescued Shawn McDorman, who had been handed the responsibility of taking over from Friday's starter Sean Potter with one on and a 3-2 count with no outs in the fourth when play recommenced. The young righthander finished a walk charged to Potter with his first pitch, then walked two more while throwing one strike.
Knowing the stakes on the table, Chillicothe head coach Adam Steyer and assistant/pitching coach Chris Emanuel concurred that an immediate hook was required, summoning Aylward, who'd been rocked hard while pitching two-thirds of an inning at Clarinda two nights before.
This time, the Omaha southpaw came in a limited the fourth-inning damage to only one more run, stranding the bases full. Then, after the Fish sticks rocked Cougars reliever Taylor Robson for three insurance runs in the top of the fifth, Aylward spun three more shutout innings to neatly tie down the win.
A two-run home run by Steve Martin had highlighted the Friday portion of the game, when Chillicothe had scored once in the first, twice in the second, and three runs in the third. Potter, meanwhile, had yielded no runs on two hits before the delay, although S. McDorman's difficulties ended up saddling him with two earned runs.
Having ridden their bats and Aylward's stout relief to a first win Saturday, the Mudcats used scintillating pitching and solid defense to claim a second.
Righthander Cory Trudell, roughed up some his last start and winless since earning three wins (and a loss) in the season's first two weeks, came within an umpire's sixth-inning close call of a no-hitter.
A scant eight days after teammate Mark Robinette threw 8-1/3 innings before allowing the only hit Chillicothe yielded in a win over Joplin, Trudell had a no-no going with two outs in the sixth of the seven-inning contest late Saturday afternoon.
Ahead only 2-0 and having allowed only two baserunners (on walks), Trudell (4-1) came within a whisker of getting the last out of the sixth, but the agile pitcher/infielder's off-balance throw after scurrying toward the third-base line to snatch P.J. Rodriguez's bunt was ruled a fraction late by the field umpire.
That would be the only hit the Cougars would have in the contest, which hard-throwing closer Martin came in to finish in the seventh after the Fish tacked on an extra tally in the their last at-bat.
The league leader in strikeouts, Trudell rang up seven more in six innings to give him 50 before Martin, whose second-inning leadoff home run off a light pole in left field ended up being the game-winning hit, earned his sixth save with a two-K inning. That gave the 6'6" Texas A&M righthander 35 strikeouts in 15-1/3 innings to that point of the season.
The finale of the triple feature took a different route, fittingly featuring a dramatic ending.
Desirous, since they'd given themselves the chance, to maximize their day's yield, the Mudcats staked new pitcher Hayden Shirley to a 1-0 lead in the top of the third inning on a Josh McDorman two-out double. Martin was thrown out at home on a close play trying to score from first on the hit.
However, Harding University Bisons pitcher Shirley began to experience some tightening in his pitching arm as he worked in the home third and it cost him.
After getting two outs on his first two pitches – both on chances he handled, he made a pitch too good to No. 3 hitter Bobby Leeper, who tied it with a sizzler that zipped over the Excelsior Springs High School Tigers Stadium fence in left.
After missing the strike zone with his next pitch, Shirley served a juicy one to designated hitter Danny Brown and the lefthanded hitter tattooed it up and over the tall fence in center field for a sudden 2-1 Cougars lead.
Chillicothe nearly blew its foot off in the top of the fourth, but managed to salvage a run that tied it.
With men at first and third with no outs, Tyler Lloyd's sacrifice bunt or possibly safety-squeeze bunt ended up nearly creating a triple play. The runner at third started home after seeing the bunt laid down, got hung up, and was tagged out retreating toward third. That left the runner who'd begun at first caught between second and third, where he soon was retired. Lloyd barely beat a subsequent throw into second to keep the inning alive.
His narrow advancement to second immediately paid dividends as Casey Solem singled Lloyd home to make it 2-2.
The tie didn't make it through the bottom of the fourth, however.
Hurriedly warmed once Shirley had to beg off, Colin Parker caught a bad break when a jam shot fell in short left field to start the Cougars' fourth. A sacrifice and a groundout to shortstop had that man at third with two out when, after a walk to the No. 9 batter, Parker yielded a sinking line-drive single to left to Bryant Lopez.
Once more down by one, the Mudcats put their leadoff man on in both the fifth and sixth against Excelsior Springs starting pitcher Steve Johnson, but couldn't bring either around. In the sixth, Brock LeBlanc, who'd been the man at third on the Lloyd bunt DP, was at second with no outs when he inexcusably was doubled off on Alex Singleton's line drive to shortstop.
Those two missed chances threatened to put a damper on the otherwise-profitable day for Chillicothe, but there was one more hope.
Sending the top of its lineup to the plate in the seventh after Martin forced the Cougars to strand two in the home sixth, Chillicothe saw Solem hit the ball hard, but too high, to right off newly-inserted lefthanded reliver Chris Saveri for a routine out.
Louie Templeton sparked new hope with a hit to left-center. Like Templeton, Tyson Parks, already owner of four hits and three walks in 10 plate appearances in the three games which were part of Saturday's marathon, lashed a 2-1 pitch for a single, bringing up Martin.
Having homered in each of the other two contests, the Brenham, Texan drew respect and full attention from Saveri, too much, it turned out. While the southpaw, with his back to Templeton leading from second, concentrated on making his first pitch to Martin, Templeton broke for third and Parks trailed him from first on steal attempts. Their breaks were so good, the catcher had no reason to throw and the Mudcats had the potential tying run 90 feet from home plate and possible lead run in scoring position, too.
Martin then smoked a low dart that shortstop Anthony Davis dove to glove while Templeton froze off third, making sure it wasn't caught in the air. Coming up with the ball on a hop, Davis rose and threw to first, but the low peg short-hopped off the first baseman's glove and high into the air behind him. Edging down the line as the throw was made, just in case, Templeton accelerated when the ball caromed away and scored without a throw, drawing the Fish even.
With a lefty on the bump, Parks at third and Josh McDorman, a fine bunter whose suicide-squeeze bunt won a key game at St. Joseph two weeks earlier, at the plate, the situation looked tailor-made for Steyer to once more dial up the suicide squeeze. However, perhaps owing to the rockets the last three batters had hit, he let his right fielder hit and it paid off. On an 0-2 delivery, McDorman also scorched one, a clean single into left that scored the lead run.
Mark Robinette tagged another hard-hit single to left off Saveri, loading the bases with one out. LeBlanc followed with a sharp grounder through the box that caromed off Saveri and toward the second baseman, but at significantly-lost speed. That left no chance to get Martin coming down the line from third, although LeBlanc was retired at first. Chillicothean Singleton, already owning two hits on the day as he saw his most action of the season, made a bid to drive in two more insurance runs, but Davis ranged well into left field to track down his looper and end the half-inning.
Now ahead by a couple, the Mudcats sent Martin back to the hill to try to close out the three-game sweep. Having played all 19-plus innings occurring on the sultry day, including just running the bases hard in the top half of the inning and having tried to go first-to-home on McDorman's double in the third, and also pitching an inning in the second game, there was reason to wonder if the big righthander had any more fuel in the tank.
The results showed there probably wasn't as much as usual, but there was enough. Although failing to record any strikeouts for the first time in 12 mound outings as a Fish, the little-used Aggie hurler sandwiched two ground balls – the last a bouncer he gloved and tagged out the batter himself – around Solem's charging, diving catch in left-center field to secure his second win without a loss.
Chillicothe had hit the trifecta.
Statistically, in addition to Parks' 5-for-7 day-plus and Martin's two long balls, the Chillicothe offense also saw Robinette go two for three in both of Saturday's full games with an RBI in each, J. McDorman have hits in each game and four total, and Singleton finish two for four with two runs scored.
Martin's save in Saturday's first full-length game was his sixth of the season, two shy of Blake Ring's 2003 team record which Chris Fowler tied the following year. Dustin Bolton had seven in 2002.
Trudell's team-high fourth victory ties him for second-most in the league behind South Division champion Sedalia's Jake Powers, who has six.
