06/19/2012 - Toros Win First Game of Twin Bill over Redbirds

Bloomington (McLean Co. Pony Complex) -- The Twin City Toros came from behind twice to earn an 8-5 victory over the visiting Metamora Redbirds in the first game of a twin bill on a warm, windy and bug-less night in southeast Bloomington.  The swamp next to the electrical substation must be dry.

Both teams went scoreless in the first couple of frames as Toro Starter Noah Johnson recorded 4 of his 7 strikeouts the first time through the Metamora batting order.

The Redbirds struck first in the top of the 3rd scoring 4 runs on 4 hits. Their lead was short lived as the Toros evened the score up in the bottom of the 4th.  Nathan Jones started the rally with a lead-off walk (FYI: over 82% of all lead-off walks score).  Wesley Anderson hit a line drive single to right center and Nick Mosele reached on an infield error to load the bases.  Bryce Hendren followed with an RBI single to LC scoring Jones.  Anderson also scored on the play when the Redbirds LF made a fielding error to cut the score to 4-2.  Kendall Warner tied the game when his one out single to right scored Mosele and Hendren.

The Redbirds took the lead in the top of the 4th scoring an unearned run off Toro reliever Duncan Welsh.  But the Toros took the lead for good in the bottom half of the inning.  McLean Conklin lead off the inning with a walk.  Parker Schaab turned a nice sacrifice bunt into an infield single and Conklin hustled his way to 3B on the play.  Nathan Jones walked to load the bases while the Metamora catcher threw the ball into LF trying to pickoff McLean Conklin who dashed home to tie the score at 5-5.  Wesley Anderson gave the Toros the lead with another hard single to right scoring Schaab.  The Toros got two insurance runs on an infield groundout by Duncan Welsh scoring Jones and later on a wild pitch scoring Anderson.     

Duncan Welsh earned the win for the Toros pitching the last two innings allowing 1 hit, no earned runs while striking out 3.  Starter Noah Johnson struck out 7 in his three innings of work.

This was the Toros third win in a row, improving their record to 4-5.  After a 20 minute break to patronize the Pony Complex snack bar, we played game two.



6/19/12 Metamora Redbirds at Twin City Toros
Team              1 2  3  4  5    R  H  E
Metamora Redbirds    0 0  4  1  0    5  5  5
Twin City Toros      0 0  4  4  0    8  8  5


W: #3 Duncan Welsh (1-0)
L: #10 Mike Jones

Good Hitting: Kendall Warner (2 Hits, 2 RBI); Wesley Anderson (2 Hits, 2 Runs, RBI)

Good Pitching: Noah Johnson (3 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 7 K); Duncan Welsh (2 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 3 K)