Traverse City Record-Eagle

Archive: Tuesday

June 19, 2012

Beach Bums win in 9th

Colligan hits pair of homers as lead in division is up to 2

From staff reports ----

JOLIET, Ill. — Traverse City scored a pair of runs in the top of the ninth inning to beat Joliet 5-3 and stretch its East Division lead to two games.

Brian Heere doubled in Ryan Still and Jose Vargas singled in Heere in the ninth for the winning margin.

Kyle Colligan hit a pair of solo home runs — one in the first and another in the fifth. Jeff Flagg drove in Vargas with a first-inning RBI single for the other TC score.

Starter Reid Kelly was solid for seven innings, giving up three runs on five hits and no walks. He struck out six.

Scott Dunn and Scott Mueller each tossed one no-hit inning, as Dunn earned the win and Mueller the save.

The win gives the Beach Bums — who have won seven of their last 10 — a two-game lead over Southern Illinois, which lost 5-4 to Normal.

Heere was 3 for 5 on the night to raise his batting average to .293, while Still improved to .327 with a 2 for 3 game.

Colligan's two homers moved him up to eighth in the league in RBIs with 24. The Bums have four of the top 11 in the Frontier League in RBIs — Vargas (28, 4th), Flagg (28, 4th) and Chase Burch (23, 11th).

Flagg (.328), Still (.327) and Burch (.327) are also in the top 10 in batting average, while Flagg is tied for the home run lead with nine long balls.

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