The Chillicothe Mudcats dropped a sixth consecutive MINK League contest on Sunday night at Shaffer Park, losing to the St. Joseph Mustangs 12-5.
It was Chillicothe’s second loss in as many days to the St. Joseph squad, who now has won 11 straight games to start their season, 10 of those wins coming in the MINK League. Chillicothe’s defense allowed more than 10 runs to a MINK League opponent for the fifth time this season.
The Mustangs got on the board early, scoring one run in the first inning, before they shelled Mudcats starter Jesus Santos in the third inning, scoring five runs off of the New Jersey native on five hits to make the score 6-0.
St. Joseph added one run in the fifth to extend their lead to seven, but Chillicothe cut into the deficit in the bottom half of the inning when a Tanner Sears hit cleared the bases, which were loaded when he came up to bat. His 3-RBI double to give the Mudcats a fighting chance with the score at 7-3.
St. Joseph would make their lead comfortable again by scoring one run in the sixth inning, and three in the seventh off of Mudcats reliever Caleb Bergman. That gave the St. Joseph Mustangs double digits on the night, and made the score 11-3.
Chillicothe scored two more runs in the seventh to make it 11-5, as a Hunter Shoulta double followed by an infield hit from John Spoto helped the Mudcats cut into the Mustangs lead again.
Unfortunately for Chillicothe, Mustangs’ power hitter Darius Freeman would have the final word on the night, hitting a solo home run off of Brennan Kettle in the top of the ninth to give the Mustangs their 12th and final run of the evening.
Chillicothe has now lost its first four meeting against the Mustangs this season, and will not play St. Joseph again until late June. In addition, St. Joseph has now scored a total of 23 runs in their two trips to Shaffer Park so far this season, 11 this past Monday, and 12 on Sunday night.
Chillicothe, who is now 4-6 on the season and 3-6 in the MINK League, will have a chance to regroup on Monday night, when they take a short trip to the campus of North Central Missouri College in Trenton, Missouri, to play a neutral site MINK League game against the Warren County Cropdusters. The Cropdusters are in rough form as well, and enter the game on a five game losing streak themselves. First pitch from NCMC is scheduled for 7:05 p.m., and you can listen to all the action of that game and every Mudcats game this summer on KCHI and kchi.com.
