The Mudcats were defeated in both games Friday night from Shaffer Park in the double-header against the Jefferson City Renegades. The Renegades won the first game 2-1 in a pitchers duel. Max Wagers started and pitched all six innings allowing just three hits but the Mudcats only managed three hits of their own in the loss. John Spoto and Blake Exizian combined for consecutive hits for the Mudcats in the 2nd inning to go ahead 1-0. The Renegades rebounded with a pair of runs in the 3rd and held on from there to earn the first win of the night.
In game two the Mudcats bats were more consistent, but the play in the field was not. A multitude of errors in the 4th inning allowed the Renegades to go from tied, to up 5-2, and never looked back from there. The Mudcats held leads of 1-0 and 2-1 early on with runs from Jarian Pickney and Frandie Fernandez off RBIs by Jordi Ventura and Ziah Chang, but were unable to overcome the deficit in the middle innings, losing 9-4.
The Chillicothe Mudcats fall to 17-15 in the MINK League just a half game ahead of the Renegades for third place with two days of the regular season remaining. The Mudcats will be at Clarinda on Saturday with first pitch at 5 PM.
