Clinton Lumber Kings

PERU, Ill. — A night that started promising for the Clinton LumberKings (28-13, 10-6) quickly unraveled as the Illinois Valley Pistol Shrimp (22-20, 11-6) used a relentless offensive attack and dominant bullpen performance to surge past Clinton 11-2 on Wednesday night at Schweickert Stadium.

The LumberKings jumped out to an early lead behind RBI singles from Sam Wiese in the 1st and Chase Womack in the 2nd, but the Pistol Shrimp answered in emphatic fashion, plating four runs in the 4th and adding seven more over the final three innings to hand Clinton its second straight loss in Peru.

D'Andre Gaines provided the game's first turning point with a three-run homer to left-center in the 4th, putting Illinois Valley in front 3-2. The next batter, Pambos Nicoloudes, launched a solo shot to left, pushing the lead to 4-2 and chasing Clinton starter Jaqson Tejada (4-2) after four innings of work.

The LumberKings left 15 men on base despite tallying 11 hits, including multi-hit games from Jaime Rasmussen (3-for-3, 2 BB), Nick Venteicher (2-for-5), and James Hackett (2-for-5), but couldn't muster any runs after the 2nd inning. Clinton struck out 14 times on the night and went 3-for-17 with runners in scoring position.

Clinton relievers Cole Connor and Rylen Blair kept the game within reach through six innings, but things spiraled in the 7th and 8th. With the bases loaded in the 7th, Tino Bethancourt ripped a 3-run double into the left-center gap to blow the game open at 7-2.

An inning later, Kyle Gibson put the exclamation mark on the night with a three-run homer down the right field line—his 1st of the season. Nicoloudes added a sacrifice fly to make it 11-2, scoring James Love, who had gone 4-for-5 with three runs scored.

Illinois Valley's bullpen trio of Joe Richardson (W, 1-0) and Caleb Okada (Sv, 2) held the LumberKings scoreless over the final 4.2 innings. Okada struck out seven of the 10 batters he faced and did not allow a hit.

Tejada was tagged with the loss, allowing four earned runs on five hits over four innings, including two homers. Hunter Dierksen faced four batters in the 8th and did not record an out, giving up four runs (three earned) in the frame.

Illinois Valley matched Clinton with 11 hits, but made theirs count—scoring 11 times while drawing eight walks and stealing four bases. The win gave the Pistol Shrimp a two-game sweep over Clinton and moved them above the LumberKings by half a game in the division.