The Chillicothe Mudcats made it four straight home wins in a row in the MINK League with a big run rule victory on Monday night over the Sedalia Bombers. They won the game 11-1 in seven innings. It was the Mudcats’ second run rule victory at home this season, and it now means that Chillicothe has won three of their last four MINK League contests.
After Sedalia took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning on a bases loaded walk, the Mudcats had their best offensive inning of the season, scoring eight runs on six hits in the bottom of the second to take a seven run lead. After Drew Sanidad reached on an infield single to start the inning, and Hunter Shoulta walked, Jorey Anderson came to the plate, and brought in all three runs on a bizarre play. Anderson had an infield bunt little league home run after Sedalia committed two errors on the same play, giving the Mudcats an early 3-1 lead. Here’s the live call of Anderson’s “home run” from Matt Clark on KCHI.
Those would be two of the Bombers six total errors in the game, and the Mudcats would make them pay. John Spoto also had a 2-RBI triple in the frame to help the Mudcats take an 8-1 lead going into the third. Sedalia starting pitcher Jose Llabreras didn’t make it through the second inning, as he was pulled after only working 1.2 innings.
The Mudcats would extend that lead in the bottom of the third when Julio Guerrero got a 2 run single, one of the three hits he registered on the day. Both Guerrero and Mudcats first baseman Elian Guzman finished with multi-hit games.
Chillicothe would then score an all important eleventh run in the bottom of the fifth, after yet another error, this time by the Sedalia catcher. Nathan Cupp, a pinch runner for Guerrero in that inning, scored on the errant throw to make it 11-1.
The Mudcats pitching staff comprised of Jaydon Cabezudo, Jesus Santos, and Ryoma Tada allowed just one Bombers run on just three hits, and left 12 Sedalia runners on the base pads. Cabezudo picked up his third straight win in as many starts, as he pitched five innings to put him in line for the victory. Cabezudo now becomes just the second starting pitcher for the Mudcats to register three wins this season, and he has now allowed just three earned runs in his last 16.2 innings on the mound.
The Mudcats are now 17-20 on the season overall, and 15-19 in the MINK League. They have now won 12 games at home this season, 10 of them being MINK League contests. The Mudcats are also now a half game behind Sedalia in the standings. If they finish ahead of the Bombers and make it into the top half of the MINK League standing by the end of the regular season, Chillicothe will host in the first round of playoffs instead of having to go on the road to start the postseason.
Chillicothe now has won three of their last four MINK League games, and seven out of their last 10 league games dating back to late June. In that stretch, the Mudcats have lost just three games by a total of just five runs. With the win, they also split the regular season series with Sedalia, beating them twice in as many days after Sedalia won the first two meetings between the two sides back in June.
The magic number for the Mudcats now sits at two, and they’ll look to keep charging forward towards a MINK League postseason spot when they host the Clarinda A’s tomorrow, at Shaffer Park, with a 7:05 p.m. start time. Can the Mudcats take down the A’s for the first time this season? Find out by tuning in live on KCHI and on kchi.com.
