The Chillicothe Mudcats dropped the rubber match of a three-game series to the North Missouri Natty’s on Wednesday evening from Tiger Field in Kirksville, Mo.
The scoring got started right off the bat on Wednesday for the Mudcats. The first batter of the game, Slater Hooke, doubled down the right field line to begin things. One batter later in the top of the first, JP Gonzalez smacked a double of his own that scored Hooke. 1-0 Mudcats two batters into the game. The Mudcats stranded the bases loaded later in the inning.
That was all Chillicothe got for a while on Wednesday evening, and the Natty’s soon found their offensive stride.
In the bottom of the second, the Mudcats quickly recorded two outs, but after that the Natty’s turned in a trio of doubles with two away from Matt Asher, Hudson Karczynski and Isaac Fanoga, and took a 2-1 lead over the Mudcats after two innings of play.
In the bottom of the third, the Natty’s put four more on the board on a pair of RBI singles in the inning from Grady Hruska and Vincent Dale, and a pair of RBI walks from Hudson Karczynski and Isaac Fanoga, and the score read 6-1 in favor of the Natty’s after three innings.
In the bottom of the fourth, the Natty’s added another and continued to grow their lead over the Mudcats. It was an Evan Rainey RBI groundout that made the score 7-1 after four innings.
The bottom of the fifth inning is when the Natty’s really put the game out of hand. Isaac Fanoga doubled again to score Hudson Karczynski to get the scoring started, 8-1 at that point. The next batter, Lucas Eddleman singled in Fanoga to make it 9-1. Then, the cherry on top of the inning came from a Frankie Brazil two-run home run over the right field fence to make it 11-1 after five innings.
The Mudcats did get a run in the top of the sixth when Slayton Stearns grounded out to second scoring Jackson Neilitz after he led the inning off with a double. 11-2 in favor the Natty’s after the Mudcats turn in the sixth.
The Natty’s got one more run in the bottom of the sixth inning, Frankie Brazil grounded out scoring Matt Asher on the play. 12-2 Natty’s after six.
The Mudcats had an opportunity to extend the game in the seventh with the 10-run rule in effect. They needed one run to keep the game going, but stranded that run at third to end the ball game and lose in run rule fashion by the final score of 12-2.
The Natty’s took two out of three from the Mudcats in the three-game series, and Chillicothe drops to 2-10 on the season.
The Mudcats are back in action on Thursday evening in Clarinda, Iowa to face off against the Clarinda A’s, first pitch is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.