The Schaumburg Boomers and Gateway Grizzlies combined for eight homers but the Boomers were able to record a 7-5 win in the middle game of the series in St. Louis.
Chase Dawson opened the scoring in the second, leading off the inning by pulling his seventh homer of the year over the wall in right. Matt Bottcher singled home a run in third to make the lead 2-0. Dusty Stroup stretched the margin to 4-0 by serving his first professional homer inside the right field foul pole. Gateway connected on three homers to tie the game in the bottom of the fourth, the last two of which came with two outs. Matt McGarry homered with one out in the fifth, giving the Boomers a momentary 5-4 lead before another Gateway homer to open the bottom of the inning again tied the score. Stroup throttled his second homer of the night leading off the seventh and Clint Hardy scored an unearned run in the eighth after stealing third to account for the final.
Ryan Middendorf won his eighth of the year despite surrendering four homers, working six innings and striking out five. Jack Snyder fanned four in two innings of relief and Thomas Nicoll struck out two in the ninth to grab his fifth save. The Boomers won despite accumulating just six hits in the game. Stroup scored three times and drove homer three as the Boomers fanned 11.
The Boomers (37-33) conclude the series on Sunday night at 5:45 p.m. RHP Kyle Arjona (8-4, 2.30) takes the ball against LHP Jordan Barrett (3-5, 6.34). The team is back home at Wintrust Field on Tuesday for three contests. Visit www.boomersbaseball.com for tickets and information or call 847-461-3695.