BASEBALL: Miners lose three straight to end season
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ The finest season in the Southern Illinois Miners' brief history began with four straight wins over River City. It ended with three straight losses to those very same Rascals.
The Miners had the best record in the Frontier League during the regular season, but after taking two games from River City at Rent One Park, lost two straight at the Rascals' park to set up a winner-take-all contest Tuesday night in their best-of-five series.
A classic battle needed an extra inning to decide a victor and it wasn't until Caleb Curry's hit in the 10th rolled under centerfielder Jereme Milons' glove that anyone touched home plate. Two runs scored on that particular play and the Rascals held on for a 3-0 victory to advance to the league's Championship Series that begins Wednesday night in Traverse City.
"An incredible season," said Miners manager Mike Pinto. "These guys shouldn't hang their heads. They should be really proud. They had a 20-game win streak, won 64 games, the second-best all-time in this league's history, and unfortunately the breaks didn't go our way today and we're going home about a week earlier than we wanted. But these guys should be really proud. It was a good baseball team."
A golden chance eluded the Miners in the first inning when they loaded the bases with two outs, but River City starter Gary Moran induced a groundout from Brendan Akashian to end the threat.
"I felt we kind of had him on the ropes," Pinto said. "He was feeling for the strike zone at that point. But as with any good pitcher, you better get him early and we didn't and he kept getting stronger."
Moran and the Miners' starter, Ryan Bird, were locked in a tight duel until the eighth inning. Both started in the series' first game Friday night. The second time out, Moran allowed five hits and Bird gave up three hits and struck out eight before giving way to Jake McMurran.
"Ryan Bird absolutely pitched his heart out," Pinto said. "The kid came out on three days rest and threw an absolute gem."
In the eighth, the Miners got a double from Justin Randall and advanced him to third base on a groundout by Joey Metropoulos, but Nate Hall struck out swinging on a changeup.
The Miners turned a spectacular double play in the top of the ninth with two runners aboard as McMurran scooped Scott Robinson's bunt and threw to Hall at third base, who fired a bullet across the diamond to first baseman Stephen Head for a twin killing. McMurran threw a wild pitch that allowed the surviving runner, Stephen Holdren, to advance to third base, but McMurran struck out Josh Banda swinging to squash the threat.
Then with a chance to end the game, Akashian was hit by a pitch to start the bottom of the ninth and was bunted to second by Will Block, but pinch-hitter Tyler Bullock flew out to center field and Bradley Goldsmith, who was also pinch-hitting, grounded out to send the game to extra innings.
"We had a couple of opportunities to win and weren't able to get the job done," Pinto said. "It came down to opportunities and we had plenty of opportunities. It was really a great baseball game until the 10th inning and all of a sudden there were some mistakes."
Chris McClendon started the 10th with a blooper over Block's head at second base, then after two outs were recorded, JoJo Gutierrez came to the plate and was intentionally walked after drawing a 2-0 count.
Curry came up next and singled toward Milons in center field. As McClendon began to round third base, the ball went under the charging Milons' glove and rolled for what seemed like an eternity on the home side. Both McClendon and Gutierrez scored and Curry stopped at third but could have scored as the relay home went to the backstop.
"I got beside myself and messed up my mechanics," Milons said. "The first thing you have to do is field the ball before anything. I looked up at the runner and next thing I know, the ball is by me. I was being aggressive. It's just one of those things."
Pinto and his assistant coaches in the dugout felt if Milons had fielded the ball cleanly, McClendon would have been out at home plate due to the combination of Milons' strong arm and Akashian's knack for blocking runners away from home plate.
"He must have took his eye off the ball," Pinto said. "It's not like we're going to get a bad hop on this field and maybe he was just trying to quicken up a little to get the guy at the plate. I thought we would have had time. I don't think he got a good jump off second base and right off the bat we said, 'Hey, we're going to get him.' Next thing you know, the ball is rolling to the center field wall."
Doug Sanders compounded the Miners' frustration with a clean single that scored Curry from third base and help the Rascals do something they hadn't done all year - win a game at Rent One Park.
River City's first win in nine tries in Marion was made official when reliever Will Krout got Milons and Randall to ground out, then struck out Metropoulos swinging for a low pitch for the final out.
"We had several opportunities to win the game and it's just like that some times," Milons said. "That's baseball for you. We didn't take full advantage of it. It was a good season. I just told the guys to keep their heads up and keep chugging along."
Milons is one of at least five Southern Illinois players who will exceed the Frontier League's age limit before next season. A new rule allows teams to bring one of those players back if special circumstances are met. The others are Metropoulos, Head, McMurran, Todd Martin and Eric Fussell.
That type of changeover will mean a busy offseason for Pinto, who came into this season with a bitter taste from the way the previous season ended. Obviously after Tuesday's loss, that taste returned in enhanced fashion.
"That pit in my stomach will be bigger this year than it was last year because we were a base hit from going to the championship," Pinto said. "I will certainly bring this to a new level if at all possible. I'll scour everywhere I can to find the pieces to bring another really good team."