Chiefs Fall Thursday 7-2

Peoria, IL - The Peoria Chiefs dropped the series finale to the Clinton LumberKings 7-2 on Thursday night to snap their longest win streak in six years at seven games. The Chiefs are now 20-17 overall with the Kane County Cougars coming to town for a three-game series starting Friday.

     The LumberKings jumped out to another early lead against Chiefs starter Zach Prendergast in the top of the first. Joseph Rosa led off with a double into the right field corner, advancing to third on an error and Eugene Helder drove Rosa in on a groundout to put Clinton on the board first 1-0.
     The advantage widened for Clinton in the top of the fourth as Ariel Sandoval led off with a double to left. Jack Larsen singled home Sandoval and advanced to second on the throw home. Larsen moved to third on a wild pitch and was brought in on a single to right by Dimas Ojeda for a 3-0 lead.
     The Chiefs got on the board in the bottom of the fourth. Elehuris Montero doubled down the left field line with out and Zach Kirtley scored him on a single to right field to cut the lead to 3-1.
     Clinton added to their run total in the top of the sixth in Prendergast's final inning of work. Sandoval got things started with a double off of the right field wall then Larsen walked and Ojeda singled home Sandoval for a 4-1 advantage. Ryan Costello reached on a fielding error by catcher Dennis Ortega. With one out and Nick Thurman batting a passed ball brought Larsen across home plate as the margin grew to 5-1.
     The LumberKings added two more runs against Chiefs reliever Levi MaVorhis in the bottom of the eighth. Ojeda singled for the fourth time of the night with one out and Ryan Costello hit a two-run homer to right as the lead extended to 7-1.
     Another late rally loomed for the Chiefs in the bottom of the ninth. Ortega and Bryce Denton singled to knock reliever Scott Boches out of the game. Matt Clancy came in out of the bullpen and his wild pitch moved both runners into scoring position. Fiedler grounded out to score Ortega as the Chiefs trailed 7-2.
     Prendergast (4-2) took the loss throwing six innings, allowing three earned runs on seven hits with one walk and five strikeouts. MaVorhis tossed two innings and allowed two runs on three hits with no walks and two strikeouts. Bryan Dobzanski pitched a scoreless top of the ninth and allowed one hit with no walks and two strikeouts.
Notes… Davis played center field for the first time in his professional career… Plummer has a eight-game hit streak… Bryant saw his seven-game hit streak end…Ortega has a seven-game hit streak… The Chiefs seven-game winning streak came to an end…The last seven-game win-streak was from June 4-11, 2012…The last time the Chiefs won more than seven in a row was August 2009… The Chiefs are 3-13 when allowing five runs or more… The Chiefs open a three-game series against Kane County at 6:30 p.m. Friday on Avengers Night… The first 1,000 fans 12 & Under will enjoy this Chiefs themed Avengers Shirt…Captain America and Iron man appearances…Swing for the Cure to raise money for the Illinois CancerCare Foundation…They will have raffles for a variety of different baskets…Fireworks will follow the game… The Chiefs will start RHP Jake Walsh (1-1, 3.62) and Kane County's starter is still TBA…The broadcast can be heard, starting with the Pre-Game Show at 6:15 p.m. on www.peoriachiefs.com/listenlive and is also available on the Peoria Chiefs Network in the Tune-In Radio App…The game is also available on MiLB.tv for subscribers.