Chillicothe 1, Rockford 12

The score says it all. All the damage was done before the midway point of the game came. It was a game where the flood gates opened, and it never really closed again until it was too late. Of course, it's true that the Chillicothe Paints are without a doubt eliminated from posteason contention. If you look at the standings, there is no logical way to make it through the many team and many game jungle that is the parity of the Frontier League. At this point, you have to play for team pride and you have to play the role of spoiler for a team that is still in contention.

Brian Gartley made the start for the Paints. He went only 2 innings of work, and gave up 7 runs on 7 hits allowed along with a walk and struck out 2 batters. He never got it going as the Rockford RiverHawks got to work early and often, and the runs they scored were more than enough for this game. Jeff Michael went 5 innings deep in relief of Gartley, and he gave up 5 runs on 7 hits allowed along with a walk while striking out a batter. Tommy Vrzal made a relief appearance as well.

For the offense, Josh Blackstock had two singles. Adrian Cantu had a single. Zach Rodeghero had the only RBI of the game, and that came on a double in the seventh inning. Gerardo Verastegui had two singles. That was it for the offense, as they just haven't had a good stretch of games lately. Alot of things haven't gone so well for the starting lineup. You can only tweak the look of the starting lineup so many times, and then it's just out of your control.

This season is a harsh reminder of how important it is to establish both your offensive presence, your pitching presence and your defensive presence. The Paints have not at all put all three together this season. There's always one department that has been lacking and completely missing. When you pitch well, you can't hit at all. When you're hitting the ball well, you're wild with the pitches. When you get into close games, the defense shuts down and collapses. This team has experienced all of those scenarios.