Clinton Lumber Kings

CLINTON, Iowa — The Clinton LumberKings (24-10, 6-3) exploded for eight runs in the fifth inning and rode a dominant effort from the middle of their order to rout the Springfield Lucky Horseshoes (10-24, 2-6), 12-2, on Sunday afternoon at NelsonCorp Field.

Springfield briefly held a 2-0 lead in the fifth after back-to-back RBI plays. Jarrett Chapman opened the scoring with an RBI single to center, scoring Cole Bush. Chase Wiese followed with a sacrifice fly to right that brought home River Lindsay.

That lead didn't last long. Clinton responded with a furious rally in the home half of the inning.

James Hackett tied the game with a 2-run single to right, scoring Jamie Rasmussen and Jalen Martinez. One batter later, Noah Thein legged out an infield single to first, bringing in Sam Wiese to give Clinton the lead for good. Cougar Cooke walked with the bases loaded to force in another run before Danny Gavin delivered the big blow — a 2-run single to right that extended the lead to 6-2.

Martinez added a sac fly, and Rasmussen capped the inning with a single to short that scored Gavin, aided by an error, pushing the score to 8-2.

Gavin continued his standout night in the sixth, collecting his fourth RBI on another run-scoring single. Brytton Clements brought in Clinton's 10th run with a sac fly to center.

In the eighth, Gavin drove in his final run with a sac fly to center, and Martinez reached on a throwing error that allowed Cooke to cross home plate and make it 12-2.

Gavin finished 2-for-2 with 4 RBI, 1 run, a stolen base, and 2 walks. Hackett and Martinez each drove in 2. Rasmussen added 2 hits and a walk, and Max Burt reached base 5 times with 3 walks and 2 runs scored. Clinton drew 13 walks as a team and stole 2 bases.

Right-hander Will Schufreider (3-2) earned the win, allowing 2 runs over 5 innings while striking out 3. Rylen Blair threw 3 scoreless frames in relief to close it out.

Brock Elliott (0-1) took the loss for Springfield, charged with 5 runs in just one inning of relief after a scoreless 3-inning start by Jake Nelms.

The LumberKings will be off as the 2025 Prospect League All-Star break begins with the Alumni Game on Monday, July 7, followed by the 2025 Home Run Derby with the Voice of the LumberKings, Andrés Tejeda, bringing you the action on prospectleaguenetwork.com. The All-Star Game will be on the following day, July 8th at 6:30 p.m. where the LumberKings will have 5 representatives play for the Western Conference. 

The LumberKings return to action with a doubleheader against the Quincy Doggy Paddlers on Wednesday, July 9th, with game one beginning at 5 p.m. As always, fans can catch the action live on prospectleaguenetwork.com or listen for free on wcciradio.com or tune in on 100.3 WCCI-FM.