BY JAMES COOK
jcook@record-eagle.com
TRAVERSE CITY —
Traverse City is still in second place in the East Division.
That's about all the good news to come out of Tuesday's 7-1 Frontier League loss to Windy City.
The Beach Bums stayed a half game ahead of idle Oakland County in the tight East race, while Windy City extended its lead to three games over Traverse City.
"Five more (games) to go," TC manager Gregg Langbehn said. "We still control our own fate."
The Cruisers host last-place Kalamazoo in a doubleheader today at Eastern Michigan University, then play their final four games of the season at Oakland University — three of those against the ThunderBolts.
On Tuesday, the Beach Bums' bats were silenced by Windy City starter Brent Solich, who tossed his first complete game of the season, needing only 104 pitches in the process.
"We made a couple errors early in the game, but we never gave up on defense and that's what wins games," Solich said. "I was fortunate enough to give up only one run, and the offense did a good job of picking me up and giving me a comfort zone. That makes the game a whole lot easier.
"They are a great hitting team. They have a lot of power in their lineup. They're going to hit you. I made good pitches in good situations and was lucky enough to keep them off balance to where they didn't hurt me."
One month ago, the Beach Bums were waxed 10-1 in another complete game by a 'Bolts pitcher and went on to be swept by Windy City in that series. If that happens again, the Bums' playoff aspirations could take a serious hit.
"We can't afford to drop games this late in the season when things are so close," Solich said.
Solich gave up four hits through five innings, then totally shut out the Bums in the next three innings before Traverse City put together a threat with back-to-back singles by Andrew Franco and Jonathan Alia with two out.
"We just didn't give ourselves many chances to score," Langbehn said. "We just had one bad inning. Mike (Moore) has pitched well all year, and he's had an uncanny ability to work out of tough situations. Unfortunately, (this) wasn't one of them. He just left too many pitches over the middle of the plate, especially when he was ahead in the count. He was ahead of all those hitters in the fourth and just couldn't put them away."
Moore — who had won three of his previous four starts — surrendered six hits, three walks and six earned runs in 3.2 innings.
The ThunderBolts are throwing a pair of right-handers today and Thursday that the Beach Bums haven't seen yet this season — Richard Barrett (7-2, 2.81) and Sean Toler (7-1, 2.13).
Traverse City counters with Kevin Reese (9-9, 4.60) tonight.
Reese was one of Traverse City's All-Star selections, but has struggled at times in the second half, but has has Windy City's number this year. In three starts against the ThunderBolts, he's allowed only 20 hits and four runs in 24 innings.
"Once in awhile, he just has one poor inning," Langbehn said. "But when he's locked in, he's really good. He just has to find a way to avoid that big inning."
The ThunderBolts scored all the runs they would need in the fourth, batting through the order.
Zach Aakhus and Jeremy Hamilton led off the frame with consecutive singles and Mike Mooney's single drove in the first run of the inning. Nick Kuroczko's sacrifice brought in another and Brandon Anderson's triple to the wall plated a pair of runs. Gilberto Mejia doubled off reliever Bryan Banes for the fifth run before Banes ended the inning on a Ryan Basham fly out.
In 4.1 innings, Banes allowed three hits, one run and two walks. Eric Blackwell came on for the ninth, giving up one hit and a walk.
The ThunderBolts tacked on a run in the eighth when Jim Calderone doubled and came around on two wild pitches.
Solich improved his record to 2-1 against Traverse City this year, and the ThunderBolts have won each of his last three starts against the Bums.
Traverse City's lone run came in the second frame when Brad Miller — who had two of the team's six hits — doubles to lead off and came in on a Franco single.
