Returning The Favor

Chillicothe 6, Slippery Rock 4

The Chillicothe Paints made their brief return to Jack Critchfield Park to face the Slippery Rock Sliders, the same team that has made the Paints run a little bumpy recently with the doubleheader sweep back at home at the V.A. on Sunday. The Sliders have made a good argument as to who might be the team to give the Paints a run for their money, (only analogy wise of course), in the Eastern Division this year in the Prospect League. In fact, if you take a look at the games between these two teams, the contests have been both very interesting and very competitive, with rallies being made by both clubs.

First of all, let's give credit to where that credit is due. I'm talking about the pretty respectable turnouts by the Slippery Rock faithful at the properly dubbed place for the ballpark, The Jack. For whatever reason, that reminds me of that famous fast food restaurant Jack In The Box, but I think that's a great nickname. The Sliders have done a marvelous job so far in getting people to come to the games. They have had almost no problem getting decent sized crowds to watch their games, and I have to commend them for their efforts. Case and point, let's go over Slippery Rock's campaign for only one year in the Frontier League. In 2007, crowds were just not coming to the ballpark, and why? That was because the team that played there was only a temporary team. The 2009 Slippery Rock Sliders of the Prospect League are a permanent fixture, and that should explain why the crowds are very much better.

Now that we have the interesting facts put away, then let's get on with the game at hand. Like all the other games that they have played so far this year, this game wasn't any different, as both the Paints and Sliders had strong showings in their efforts. Of course, only one team could get the win, and if you follow the Paints, then you can pump your fist a tad bit for this result. This game saw the debut of one pitcher for the Paints while a starting pitcher made his debut in relief. Eric Heckaman, who we know pretty well now, made his first relief appearance of the year. He put in one inning of work, the ninth inning, and sealed the deal for the Paints even though he gave up two hits, a walk, and a run.

Stephen Shackleford made the start for the Paints. He went 5 innings deep in his start, giving up a trio of walks, a pair of hits, and he threw a wild pitch that went solo. He gave up three runs in total and struck out three batters. Okay, so perhaps I'm bad at making these things sound remotely entertaining when I write all loosey goosey, but I figured that was catchy. Anyway, the pitching was good for the Paints, and the main thing is, the pitching was once again good enough to win. Giving up 4 runs can be managed, and it was managed quite well by the visiting team here. When you're faced with any pressure cooker situations, you have to dig deep and pitch your way through these jams. That's what these guys on the mound did for the Paints.

Now for the offense, they once again busted out complete explosion full of hits in a single game, but overall, it was only a two run margin that the Paints won by, lest we forget. The batters did a solid job of spreading out the 16 hits made in this game. You have to give credit to these young men because they certainly are doing a great job of seeing the ball and getting their bats on pitches to make something out of them. Stringing those hits together to drive in more runs is another thing, but here the fifth inning was really the only critical part of the game for Chillicothe's offense. Brandon White batted leadoff and was the DH. He had two singles and an RBI. Shortstop Ben Allen had an RBI single. Left fielder Andy Brouse had two singles and an RBI.

First baseman Cory Maguire had a single. Catcher Andrew Marshall had two singles. Third baseman Kyle Gendron had two singles and an RBI. Center fielder Steven Mirizzi had a single. Second baseman Tim Krofcheck had two singles. Right fielder Zach Frentsos had a great game. For the first time this year for the Paints, Zach saw the ball really well and got in some hits. He had three hits for this ballgame, and had a perfect percentage. He had two singles and an RBI double. Overall, this was the kind of game that the Paints needed because the Slippery Rock Sliders took it to the Paints on Sunday, and you could tell that those two games were bummers due to the off day fatigue and little execution, so this was a good game to bounce back on against a division rival.

The Paints will return home to the V.A. They will take on the Richmond Riverrats on Wednesday at 7:05 PM.