River City Rascals Defeated By Lake Erie Friday Night

O'FALLON - River City infielder Chris McClendon was selected to participate in his first Frontier League All-Star game earlier this week.      

And McClendon played like an All-Star on Friday.      

Unfortunately, most of his teammates did not.      

Lake Erie pounded out 18 hits and scored in six of the nine innings on the way to an 11-9 victory in front of 1,484 at T.R. Hughes Ballpark.      

The Rascals used six pitchers, none were effective. The 18 hits is the most given up by the Rascals this season. The 11 runs ties the most surrendered in 2011.      

McClendon led a 13-hit attack with three hits, three RBI, and two runs scored. He reached base five times in six trips to the plate with a pair of walks. The Lufkin, Texas resident is in the middle of a 20-game on-base streak.      

But the pitching staff took a beating against Lake Erie, which is 11th in the 12 team-league in runs scored.      

"It just wasn't our night," said River City manager Steve Brook. "It's a disappointing loss. When you come out and swing the bats as well as we did - to lose. I'm not used to it."      

The sloppily played affair took four hours and eight minutes to complete.      

The Rascals had won 15 of their previous 18 games heading into the contest. They now lead Southern Illinois by just one game in the Western Division standings.     

Lake Erie, which improved to 21-24, has won three in a row.     

River City stranded 12 runners on Friday - 10 of them in scoring position. Still, the Rascals sport a league best 31-14 mark.     

The loss wasted a strong effort by McClendon out of the leadoff spot in the batting order.     

"I felt good at the plate," McClendon said. "We had some big hits, just not enough of them."      

Chad Maddox, Joash Brodin and Jason Patton had two hits each for Rascals, who did not go down without a fight. With the tying run on base and two out in the bottom of the ninth, Stephen Holdren hit a long drive to left that was caught in front of the wall by Kellen Kulbacki.     

But the game was lost in the early innings when the Rascals fell behind 9-6. Lake Erie put its leadoff runner on base eight times.      "You can't expect to give up nine runs in the first four innings and win the game," said Brook. "I felt like during the game we were going to come back and win."    

Rascals starting pitcher Don Lisi gave up five earned runs in two innings. He has struggled at home entering the game with 10.00 ERA at home and a 1.75 ERA on the road.    

River City scored four times in the second inning to take a short-lived 5-3 lead. Patton and McClendon had run-scoring hits to tie the game. Doug Sanders followed with a first-pitch double down the left-field line to bring in two more tallies.      

Lake Erie came right back with three in the third to take a 6-5 lead. The Rascals answered in the bottom of the frame with a seeing-eye run-scoring hit from Danny Sawyer to tie the score 6-6.      

The Crushers regained control with a three-spot in the fourth to go up 9-6. Four successive two-out singles powered the uprising.       

River City, tailing 10-8, left two runners on in the sixth and seventh. Jareck West and Patton came up empty with the trying runs in scoring position and one out in the seventh.     

Lake Erie pushed across and insurance tally in the top of the eighth.        

NOTES FROM THE POUND:       

• The post-game fireworks show, sponsored by Dr. Pepper, was canceled due to the length of the game. A city statute forbids fireworks after 11 p.m. The contest ended at 11:17      
• River City is 0-13 when trailing after seven innings.      
• Sawyer broke out of an 0-for-10 skid with a single in the third inning.      
• Rick Lisi, father of River City pitcher Don Lisi, played in nine games with the Texas Rangers in 1981. He had five hits in 16 at bats during his brief major-league career.     
•  Holdren has 90 career homer runs, second all-time in the Frontier League history behind Charlie Lisk of Gateway, who has 98.      
• Reliever Kirkland Rivers is 6-for-6 in save opportunities this season.      
• Righthander Brandon Cunniff has not allowed an earned run in his last 13 appearances.      
• The Rascals remain last in the league in attendance averaging 1,512 per game. Southern Illinois leads at 4,027. Gateway is second with 3,696.