Matt Clark in with local sports, the Chillicothe Mudcats dropped both games in their first doubleheader of the season, losing to the red hot Clarinda A’s at home on Monday night.
The Mudcats move to 5-11 in the MINK League, but 6-11 in overall play. Clarinda, meanwhile, is in fantastic form, picking up wins number six and seven in a row. They are now 3-0 against Chillicothe this season, and 12-6 in their season.
Clarinda won Game 1 of the doubleheader, 4-0, and the second game, 9-2. Both games were finished in seven innings, which is the length of doubleheader games in the MINK League. Here’s what happened in each of the games.
Game 1: Clarinda 4-0 Chillicothe
Clarinda built their lead by scoring on a bases loaded walk in the second to make the score 1-0, and adding another run in the fifth off of a sacrifice fly, with both runs being credited to Mudcats starter Layne Rutherford.
Clarinda added some much needed insurance runs when former MINK League Player of the Week Sean Bazmore hit 2-run single made the lead 4-0 in the sixth. A’s starter Luke Spencer would pitch five scoreless innings before Gavin Spencer finished the game with two shutout frames on the mound as the relief pitcher.
The Mudcats stranded seven base runners in Game 1. Their best chance to score came in the bottom of the second, when the bases were loaded with one out, but they could not get any runs across. The Mudcats registered all four of their hits in the game in the first four innings of play.
Game 2: Clarinda 9-2 Chillicothe
In game number two, Clarinda got started early as well. The A’s scored one run on a balk in the first, with Khi Holiday scoring the run. They got 3 runs on a bases clearing double by Joey Caruso with two outs in the top of the second, and two more runs, one unearned, in the 3rd inning to quickly build a 6-0 advantage.
The Mudcats took their chance to get on the scoreboard in the 4th with a Nathan Cupp RBI sacrifice fly that scored Tanner Sears. It was Cupp’s third RBI of the season.
Clarinda would plate three runs in the sixth, on three hits, including an RBI double by Conner McKnatt and an RBI single by Josh Polubinski. However, Chillicothe would score the final run of the night in the seventh.
Rafael Calcano got a base hit on the Clarinda starting pitcher, Jose, who happened to be his brother. He reached twice in the contest, and later scored in the seventh on a play resulting in an error.
Both teams stranded eight base runners in Game 2 of the doubleheader, and each team committed two errors apiece, but the difference was the hitting. Clarinda had 11 base hits in Game 2, compared to three from the Mudcats.
Up Next:
Chillicothe will get the day off on Tuesday and have a great chance to pick up wins in another doubleheader, this one at home against Carroll on Wednesday night. The Mudcats are already 2-0 against the Merchants so far this season. The Merchants currently sit in sixth place in the MINK League standings, and the Mudcats are in seventh.
First pitch of Game 1 Wednesday night will be at 5:05 p.m. Don’t miss a single pitch of Mudcats baseball on Wednesday night or this season by listening to every game live on KCHI and on kchi.com. You can also watch video livestreams of every single Mudcats home game this year on the KCHI Facebook page.
