The Chillicothe Mudcats fell for a second straight night on the road, this time against the Sedalia Bombers, in a back and forth battle that finished 11-10 in the Bombers’ favor on Saturday night.
Chillicothe gave up one Sedalia run in the first inning, before scoring two runs in the second to take their first and only lead of the night, the runs coming off of a Noboru Shinohara RBI single.
Sedalia scored twice in the fourth, and once in the fifth, before both teams scored once on either side of the sixth inning, meaning that Sedalia took a 5-3 advantage into the seventh inning.
Sedalia took full control in the bottom of the seventh, where they built their lead by scoring six runs off of Mudcats pitcher Drew Hnilo, with six of the first seven hitters in the inning reaching on a single. Another pitcher for Chillicothe, Justin Schnell, would put out the fire, but a lot of damage was done, as the lead for Sedalia expanded to 11-3.
However, the Mudcats did not go down easy at all. Two doubles from the Mudcats, one from Carlos Negron and the other from Sammy Cruz, and multiple wild pitches from the Sedalia pitching staff gave the Mudcats life in the eighth, as they scored four and cut the lead in half, making it 11-7. But, the Mudcats could’ve had more, as they stranded the bases loaded.
The Mudcats would fight until the very end, scoring three runs in the ninth, and putting the experienced Mudcats veteran, Tanner Sears, into a great opportunity in the final at bat of the game. The Mudcats had runners on first and third with two outs, trailing by just one run.
On a full count pitch, Sears drove a ball deep into left center field, but missed a home run by about 15 feet, and the Bombers center fielder made the catch to end the Mudcats comeback attempt, the tying run being stranded 90 feet away from home plate.
Chillicothe, after starting 3-0 on the season, has now lost two straight on the road. They will now play both of the teams they lost to at home in the next two days, starting with a rematch against Sedalia tonight at 5:05. Join Matt Clark for first pitch and every single moment in the Mudcats 2024 season on KCHI and on kchi.com.
