Corey Bass
CRESTWOOD, IL – Corey Bass hit three doubles and Ryan Strombom earned the win in his first professional start as the ThunderBolts won their third straight game, 6-3 over the Traverse City Beach Bums at Standard Bank Stadium Tuesday afternoon.
The game was scoreless into the bottom of the third inning, when Cody Keefer led off with a double for the ThunderBolts (4-1). Bass knocked him in with his first two-base hit of the day. Bass moved to third base on a Kevin Barker single and scored on Coco Johnson’s sacrifice fly.
Traverse City (1-3) answered with a three-run fourth. They had six hits in the inning, all singles. Jeremy Delgado and Steven Patterson led off the inning with hits and Jose Vargas singled home Delgado. Patterson crossed the plate on Nate Causey’s base hit. A one-out hit off the bat of Will Kengor gave the Beach Bums their first lead but Strombom worked out of a jam, stranding men at second and third.
The Bolts tied the score in the fifth when Bass doubled and scored on a Tim Zier sacrifice fly. Barker, who had been hit by a pitch and Johnson, who had singled were both on base with two outs when Reggie Lawson singled them both in, giving the ThunderBolts a 5-3 lead.
They added one in the sixth when Keefer walked and Bass doubled him home.
Strombom (1-0) did not allow any runs outside of the fourth and three relievers combined on four shutout innings. Jacob Lanning (0-1) gave up five runs in five innings, taking the loss.
The ThunderBolts and Beach Bums will wrap up their two-game series with another daytime contest on Wednesday. Game two of the series is the second School Day of the year with a 10:35 start time. Chris Chigas (0-0, 0.00) will make his first professional start on the mound against Traverse City’s Rob Blanc (2016 debut). The broadcast can be heard on WXAV 88.3 FM and wxav.com.
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