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Miners edge ThunderBolts

BY LES WINKELER

Thursday, August 28, 2008 3:24 PM CDT

MARION - It's hard to blame the Southern Illinois Miners from dancing behind home plate Wednesday night.

The opportunistic Southern Illinois squad pulled off an improbable 5-4 win over Windy City, taking a two-game lead in the Frontier League West Division with just seven games in the season.

"That was a big win in every way," said Miners' manager Mike Pinto. "First to be able to pick up one more game, second of all it now it assures us in the event of a tiebreaker we take the lead. The mental part, just coming back in a game like that, you gave up the lead and came back."

Mike Victor, pinch-running for Tim Dorn, scored the winning run on a wild pitch in the bottom of the ninth. Victor was mobbed by his teammates after sliding across the plate.

"These guys can taste it," Pinto said. "They can taste the victory now. I've said from day No. 1, these guys play a hard nine innings every day. Rarely have I seen them quit early in a ballgame."

The Miners entered the inning trailing 4-3 as the result of Gilberto Mejia's two-run homer in the seventh.

Back to back doubles by Joey Metropoulos and Dorn tied the game in the ninth. After being sacrificed to third, Dorn was replaced by Victor. After Manny Paula fanned with the bases loaded, the first pitch thrown to Drew Bennett sailed to the backstop, allowing Victor to scoot home with the winning run.

Armando Carrasco picked up the win in relief.

The Miners squandered plenty of opportunities to take command of the game early.

Southern Illinois let a golden scoring chance slip away in the second, loading the bases with just one out. Brendan Akashian and Brandon Jones singled in succession before Paula walked.

However, ThunderBolts starter Stephen Flake emerged unscathed. Mike Scanzano popped up to short for the second out and Andre Miller grounded out to second to end the threat.

Windy City took the lead in the top of the third as the result of an uncharacteristic wild streak by Ryan Bird. Bird, who had 139 strikeouts and just 39 walks entering the game, yielded three hits and two walks in the third.

However, it could have been much worse. Bird got Wes Long to fly out to center with the bases loaded.

The lead was short-lived thanks to a three-run homer by Jones in the bottom of the inning. After singles by Metropoulos and Dorn, Jones launched a thunderbolt well into the lake beyond the left field fence.

"When he hits them, it's kind of like as soon as you hear it, it's gone," Pinto said.

Once he got the lead, Bird settled into a comfortable groove, retiring nine of the last 11 hitters he faced.

Jake McMurran came on in relief of Bird to start the seventh and gave up Mejia's homer.

McMurran retired the first two hitters easily before yielding a bloop single to ninth-place hitter Danny Sawyer. Mejia made McMurran pay for that mistake, turning on an inside pitch and sending it into the ThunderBolts bullpen.

The Miners go for the sweep at 7:05 tonight.

les.winkeler@thesouthern.com / 351-5088

Windy City 002 000 200 - 4 7 1

Southern Illinois 003 000 002 - 5 8 0

Flake, Lowey (7), Petty (9) and Sawyer. Bird, McMurran (7), Carrasco (9) and Akashian. WP � Carrasco. LP � Petty. Leading hitters � WINDY CITY: Mejia 1-3 (HR, 2 BI), Sawyer 2-4 (2B, BI); SOUTHERN ILLINOIS: Jones 2-3 (HR, 3 BI), Metropoulos 2-2 (2B), Dorn 2-5 (2B, BI).