The Chillicothe Mudcats remarkably were walked off in a third consecutive road game to lose on Saturday night at the defending MINK League Champions, the Jefferson City Renegades, by a final score of 8-7.
Chillicothe gave up the winning run on an error by second baseman Noboru Shinohara with nobody out and two runners on base in the bottom of the ninth inning. The error by Shinohara was one of four Mudcats errors that ultimately costed them the game in the end. The error, which was hit into play by Jacob Hoernschemeyer, scored pinch runner Bradyn O’nNeal for the Renegades to give them the victory.
Chillicothe got on the board first, scoring two runs, one of them unearned, in the top of the first, after a walk to Owen Bushnell scored Hunter Shoulta with the bases loaded, and a sacrifice fly from Drew Sanded brought Jackson Crawford in from third base.
Jefferson City swiftly cut the deficit in half in the bottom of the first with a solo home run by leadoff batter Cam Lee off of the Mudcats starting pitcher, Jordan Marlott.
The Mudcats would extend their lead to 4-1 in the top of the third with RBIs from Drew Sanded and Sammy Cruz, but would allow three Jefferson City runs in the bottom half of the frame, tying the score going into the fourth.
The fourth inning was where the Mudcats scored three runs off of one hit, as they took four walks to give themselves a 7-4 cushion. That knocked the Jefferson City starter, Brock Miles, out of the contest.
The game then stayed quiet for a couple of innings, before the Renegades started a slow and steady comeback in the final three innings of the game. After Marlott was pulled for the Mudcats in the seventh, reliever Sungbin Park allowed two runs on two errors. The next pitcher for the Mudcats, Drew Hnilo, followed that up by allowing the tying run to score in the eighth inning off of a wild pitch with two outs.
Samir Lopez came out to pitch the ninth for the Mudcats, but couldn’t record a single out, hitting the first batter he faced, and then allowing a single to Peyton Mitchell before the walk off on the error.
The Mudcats split the weekend series with the Jefferson City Renegades, with both teams winning a game apiece, both contests being decided by one run. The Mudcats’ record now stands at 5-9 in the MINK League, and 6-9 on the season.
Chillicothe gets Father’s Day off, but will be back in action with their first doubleheader of the season on Monday, starting an important week for the Mudcats season and postseason aspiration. The doubleheader will be against Clarinda at Shaffer Park, with first pitch of game 1 to be thrown at 5:05 p.m. Make sure to tune into the live action of every Chillicothe Mudcats baseball game this season on KCHI and on kchi.com.
