Boomers get by Things
The five all-stars on the Schaumburg Boomers have spent so much time in Washington this week that they might have to start paying residence taxes. But with the way Steve McQuail, Sean Mahley and Gerard Hall are hitting and fielding, they might not want to leave.
Mahley was the Most Valuable Player in the Frontier League All-Star game Wednesday, McQuail won the Home Run Derby and Hall made what might have been a game-saving defensive play Saturday night in the Boomers’ 6-3 victory over the Wild Things.
Two players who weren’t all-stars, first baseman Brian McConkey and pitcher Matt Kuna, also played key roles in Schaumburg’s victory that clinched the season-series over Washington.
McConkey homered and drove in four runs and Kuna (4-2) pitched six scoreless innings and lowered his ERA to 1.74. The all-stars also helped as McQuail had two hits and scored two runs and Mahley drove in the game’s first run with a triple.
It was another luckless and winless game for Washington starting pitcher Gary Lee (4-6).
Lee was victimized by a costly error (by second baseman C.J. Beatty in the second inning), bad luck (a throw to third base by right fielder Stewart Ijames that hit a Schaumburg baserunner) and a controversial call on the run-scoring triple by Mahley.
It added up to six runs allowed by Lee, just three of which were earned. Lee has given up 13 unearned runs in 12 outings. Normal’s Tyler Lavigne is the only pitcher in the Frontier League who has given up more unearned runs.
Schaumburg took a 2-0 lead in the top of the second inning. Frank Pfister hit a one-out single and Mahley followed with a ground ball down the first-base line that went for the run-scoring triple. First baseman Jovan Rosa, who made a diving attempt to snare the grounder, questioned home-plate umpire Ron Whiting’s call of a fair ball, and Washington manager Bart Zeller left the dugout to argue but the call stood.
Schaumburg stretched its lead to 5-0 in the third by scoring three runs after having two outs and nobody on base. Hall reached on a fielding error by Beatty on a hard-hit one-hop grounder. McQuail followed with single through the right side of the infield and Hall tried to go from first base to third on the play. A strong throw from Ijames appeared as if it would be in time to retire Hall, but it struck the Schaumburg runner in the back, about 15 feet from the base.
McConkey then launched a three-run homer the opposite way, inside the left-field foul pole.
McConkey drove in his fourth run and gave Schaumburg a 6-0 lead with a single in the sixth, scoring McQuail, who had doubled.
Kuna gave up only three hits and one walk before turning the game over to the Boomers’ bullpen.
The Wild Things found a pitcher they could hit in Tony Delmonico as Shain Stoner started a three-run seventh with a solo home run to left centerfield. After a groundout, Chris Constantino singled, Ijames doubled and Calvin Culver, who had a game-tying hit Friday night, delivered a two-run single that cut Scahumburg’s lead to 6-3.
Washington threatened again in the eighth, loading the bases on walks to Darian Sandford and Mark Samuelson around an infield single by A.J. Nunziato. But with two outs, Hall, the Boomers’ shortstop, made a diving snare of a grounder up the middle by Constantino and flipped to second baseman Keith Werman for an inning-ending forceout.
Dexter Price, the fifth Schaumburg pitcher of the game, got the final three outs for his sixth save.