May 9, 2007

Joliet, Ill.—The Joliet JackHammers scored three runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to break a 3-3 tie on the way to a 6-3 win over the Gary SouthShore RailCats in the spring training opener for both clubs. Gary will play at Schaumburg at 1:00 p.m. on Thursday.

First baseman Steve Georgion and pitcher Willie Glen provided the highlights of the day for the RailCats. Georgion went 2 for 2 including a home run and a run-scoring double. Georgion is playing for the RailCats as a non-roster player after attending the club's tryout camp. He is a product of Purdue University-North Central.

Glen fired three no-hit innings, retiring nine of 10 batters. Eric McNamee also added two hits for Gary as part of an eight-hit attack.

RailCats batting log:

Top First: McNamee—single to center. Blakeley—grounded into double play, second to short to first. Pecci—grounded out to second. 0 runs, 1 hit, 0 LOB.

Bottom First: Willie Glen retired Joliet in order, getting the third out on a called third strike against Chad Ehrnsberger.

Top Second: Allensworth—hit by pitch. Haake—grounded out to second, Allensworth to second. Yepez—single to left, Allensworth to third. Townsend—sacrifice fly to left, Allensworth scored. Caston—struck out swinging. 1 run, 1 hit, 1 LOB.

Bottom Second: Glen again retired the side in order, notching one strikeout on an off-speed pitch to Joliet cleanup hitter Juan Diaz.

Top Third: Price walked on four pitches. McNamee popped out to shortstop. Price stole second. Blakeley grounded out to third. Pecci grounded out to first. 0 Runs, 0 Hits, 1 LOB.

Bottom Third: Glen hit a batter with one out and threw a two-out wild pitch to move the runner to second, but pitched out of trouble. He retired nine of the 10 batters he faced and did not allow a base hit in his first outing of the spring.

Top Fourth: Allensworth flied out to right. Haake hit a hard ground ball through the middle for a base hit. Yepez grounded into a double play, pitcher to short to first. 0 Runs, 1 Hit, 0 LOB.

Bottom Fourth: Steve Edsall now pitching for Gary. Edsall retired the side in order on three ground balls to Tanner Townsend at third.

Top Fifth: Townsend has a hit taken away on a nice play by Joliet third baseman Chris Brown on a one hop shot. Caston strikes out looking. Price flies out to shallow left. 0 Runs, 0 Hits, 0 LOB.

Bottom Fifth: Steve Georgion now playing first base for Gary. Joliet's Derek Nicholson led off the inning with a line drive single to left, the first hit of the game for the JackHammers. Kevin Sullivan followed with an opposite field home run to right to give Joliet a 2-1 lead. Edsall retired the next two batters, one on a strikeout, allowed a two-out single, and then nailed down the final out to get out of the inning.

Top Sixth: McNamee lined an opposite field double to right. Georgion lined an opposite field double to left, McNamee scored. Pecci blooped a single to left, Georgion to third. Allensworth struck out swinging. Sasa batting for Haake. Sasa flied out to shallow left, runners held. Yepez popped foul to the catcher. 1 Run, 3 Hits, 2 LOB.

Bottom Sixth: Brad Mumma now pitching for Gary. Mike Reese now in left field. Dale Mueller now in center field. Steve Ketter now catching. Very impressive inning for Mumma as he retired all three batters with two strikeouts.

Top Seventh: Townsend flied to left. Caston grounded to third. Mueller walked. McNamee grounded out to third. 0 Runs, 0 Hits, 1 LOB.

Bottom Seventh: Carl Johnson now in right field for Gary. Sasa moves from right to second base. Mumma allowed back-to-back singles to start the inning and on the second hit, Johnson misplayed the ball in the right for an error and it rolled to the fence as a run scored and the batter stopped at second. After a ground ball to second advance the runner to third with one out, Mumma notched a big strikeout and then got a foul pop to first to retire the side. The run was unearned.

Top Eighth: Reese grounded out to first. Georgion lined a home run to right. Pecci grounded out to second. Johnson struck out. 1 Run, 1 Hit, 0 LOB.

Bottom Eighth: Jim Paduch now pitching for Gary. Brett Wallace now catching. Steve Ketter moves from catcher to first base. Steve Georgion moves from first base to third. The first batter of the inning hit a chopper to third that Georgion charged and could not handle. It was scored a hit. One out later, Joliet picked up another infield hit off the glove of Georgion on a diving try. Juan Diaz followed with a long double to right to bring in a run. Derek Nicholson lined a single to left to bring in another run. One out later, Javier Lopez lined a hit to center to bring in the third run of the inning. Jay Pecci made a nice play at short to end the frame.

Top Ninth: Sasa blooped a single to right. Ketter grounded out to first, Sasa went to second. Wallace grounded out to third. Caston grounded out to second. 0 Runs, 1 Hit, 1 LOB.

The teams will play a bottom half of the ninth.

Bottom Ninth: Paduch retired the side in order to close out the day.

Today's RailCats Lineup:

Batter AB R H RBI

Eric McNamee, 2b 4 1 2 0

Mike Reese, lf 1 0 0 0

Eric Blakeley, 1b 2 0 0 0

Steve Georgion, 1b 2 1 2 2

Jay Pecci, ss 3 0 1 0

Jermaine Allensworth, lf 2 1 0 0

Carl Johnson, rf 1 0 0 0

Steve Haake, rf 2 0 1 0

Toshi Sasa, rf-2b 2 0 1 0

Jose Yepez, c 3 0 1 0

Steve Ketter, c-1b 1 0 0 0

Tanner Townsend, 3b 2 0 0 1

Brett Wallace, c 1 0 0 0

Bernard Caston, dh 4 0 0 0

Nate Price, cf 1 0 0 0

Dale Mueller, cf 0 0 0 0

E: Johnson. 2B: McNamee, Georgion. HR: Georgion. HBP: Allensworth. SF: Townsend. SB: Price.

Pitchers IP H R ER BB SO

Willie Glen 3.0 0 0 0 0 2

Steve Edsall 2.0 3 2 2 0 1

Brad Mumma 2.0 2 1 0 0 3

Jim Paduch (L) 2.0 5 3 3 0 0

HBP: Glen. WP: Glen.