River Bandits Ice Hot Rods' Offense in 4-1 Victory

( Preview / Boxscore )

After four weeks of high-scoring games with lopsided scores, Saturday night's fifth installment of the Game of the Week provided a much-needed change-of-pace, as the Hot Rods and River Bandits took turns shutting down each other's offense. But, at the end of the day, it was a few quirky plays, one well-timed hit, and dominant pitching that buoyed the River Bandits to a 4-1 win on a cold, windy evening at Bartholomew Park.

Although the talk before the game was about the power potential of sluggers like the Hot Rods' Kelechi Ononiwu and Scott Lawrence and the River Bandits' Connor Greenwood and Andre Scott, the name of the game on this day was pitching, as the River Bandits allowed just three hits and the Hot Rods only one in a game where the margin for error was miniscule.

Greenwood threw 4 hitless innings and had his team's only hit.

One inning into the game, it looked like Greenwood's wildness on the mound might present a major opportunity for the Hot Rods. In the top of the first, Matt Pattison reached on an error and came around to score after a hit batsmen and a pair of free passes, the final ones to supplemental players Jared Spohr and Nate McKinnis. But, despite taking a 1-0 lead out of the frame, it was the last damage that the Hot Rods would produce against Greenwood, as her set down nine of the final ten batters he faced, striking out 5. Greenwood was economical, needing only 60 pitches to breeze through the maximum four innings pitched, and he did not surrender a hit.

"I was having a problem with my quad that I was landing on, so I was very uncomfortable," said Greenwood of his early struggle. "But I stretched it out, and played through it...My curve ball was breaking great last night."

"Sometimes Connor tries too hard to carry the whole team," said River Bandits' manager Kurt Thornton after the game. "Tonight, he relaxed and really came through for us."

Pattison was sharp in 3 innings but victimized by one miscue.

Making that 1-0 lead stand up early was Pattison, who kept the River Bandits' offense off balance for three hitless innings. After facing the minimum through 2 2/3 innings thanks to sharp stuff, a double play turned by Ryan Eising, and a runner caught stealing on a great throw and tag by Lawrence and Ononiwu, though, Pattison issued free passes to Tucker Elliott and Greg Nadolna with two outs. With Khalil Van Hook at the plate, Nadolna drifted off first base, but Lawrence's back pick attempt got past first basemen Devin Ashley and, thanks to Bartholomew Park's ample foul territory, rolled all the way to the foul pole, allowing Elliott to score the tying run.

In the fourth inning, with the score still knotted at one apiece, the strikezone tightened up a bit for Hot Rods' reliever Nate McKinnis, resulting in walks to Chance Landin and Antonio Jimenez that eventually brought Greenwood to the plate with runners on second and third. Still in the midst of a double no-hitter, Greenwood ripped a 2-1 fastball down the left field line, just out of the reach of third basemen Sean Bland that score both Landin and Scott and gave the River Bandits a 3-1 lead.

Elliott scored twice, and made some big plays at 2nd base.

The River Bandits would push across a final run in the sixth against McKinnis when Elliott made a great read on a wild pitch that bounced straight up and to the back stop, during a sequence of three consecutive walks and hit batsmen that made things 4-1.

With the game still tight, though, and hits at a premium, the River Bandits turned their slim lead over to lefty Tanner Adams and, although the Hot Rods scratched three hits against him over the final three frames, he was more than up to the task of making the lead stand up. In the fifth inning, Adams struck out the first two hitters before Ashley pulled a two-out single to right, but Elliott stranded him with a nice play going back on a pop up at second base. In the sixth, Adams again struck out two and, despite a hard hit double by Matthew Moberly, again escaped unscathed on a pop up caught this time by Scott. Finally, in the seventh, Adams pitched around a one-out infield single by Eising, striking out Lawrence and getting Spohr to fly out to Taylor Johnson in left field to close out the victory. Adams' final tallies were 5 strikeouts over three innings pitched to earn the save the long way.

For the Hot Rods, Spohr was sharp in relief, striking out 3 in 1 1/3 innings of work, including escaping a bases-loaded jam in the fifth, in the losing effort. The River Bandits, for their part, struggled to hit, but their offense did work 12 walks and were plunked twice in six innings, and on the bases, Scott stole three bases and Greenwood two in the victory.