Sunday Notes (5/22)

A resounding theme both here at O’Brien Field in Peoria this season and in this month of May as well: the LumberKings held a slim lead last night, couldn’t avoid one bad inning and then couldn’t recover despite putting the tying run aboard in the ninth inning.  Clinton’s 3-1 lead in the fifth inning turned into a 5-3 deficit after Elliot Soto’s two-run single and Greg Rohan’s RBI single powered the Chiefs’ three-run sixth inning.

Steven Baron homered last night, Kevin Rivers doubled and drove in a run as well but it wasn’t enough.  Right-hander Taijuan Walker exited with a 3-2 lead which left-hander Nate Reed kept in-tact through the fifth, but Reed walked two and watched them both score in the sixth.  Kalian Sams singled to lead off the ninth, but a double play quickly erased him and any chance for a comeback as Chiefs’ left-hander Eric Jokisch improved to 6-0 on the season, 4-0 against the LumberKings.

Here’s the one stat I dug up today that might be a potential bright spot for the Kings as they take on Peoria at 1:00 PM central time today…right-hander George Mieses, today’s starter, is 1-0 with a 1.80 ERA in day games on the road this season.  Of course, that’s just one outing on 4/30 at Wisconsin, but it’s also the 19-year-old’s only win thus far.  Am I reaching a bit?  Probably, but we’d sure love to have that 5.0-inning, one-run effort again today.

Today’s Game Notes:  5.22.11 kingsnotes

Starting Lineups:

LumberKings (11-32):  Shaver Hansen/2B, Carlos Ramirez/SS, Stefen Romero/3B, Mickey Wiswall/D, Matt Browning/1B, Julio Morban/CF, Kalian Sams/RF, Jabari Blash/LF, Steven Baron/C, George Mieses/RHP

Peoria Chiefs (23-19):  Matt Szczur/CF, Elliot Soto/2B, Greg Rohan/3B, Richard Jones/1B, Micah Gibbs/C, Ryan Cuneo/DH, Anthony Giansanti/RF, Kyung-Min Na/LF, Arismendy Alcantara/SS, Austin Kirk/LHP

First pitch is at 1:00 PM, listen online at 1390kcln.com.

-DL