Late Game Breakdown Cause Hoots to Fall in Norma

Beattie Hits Home Run No.4

NORMAL, IL- The O’Fallon Hoots (24-25, 9-13) hit the road to take on the Normal CornBelters (25-26, 10-14) on Thursday, July 27. Locked in a close ballgame through five and a half innings, Normal broke open the affair, scoring nine runs in the late stages to defeat the Hoots 10-4.

Inside the Box Score

• Chase Beattie hit his fourth home run of the season, drove in all four Hoots runs
• Jake Vitale picked up a double.
• Christain Harvey turned in five and a third innings of work in the start, only allowing three runs while striking out five batters.

How it happened

• Colin Kalinowsk got the Belters on the board in the bottom of the fourth inning on an RBI sacrifice flyout to make it 1-0.
• In the top of the sixth inning, Beattie hit a two-run home run to give O’Fallon a 2-1 lead.
• Normal responded with four runs in the bottom of the sixth inning. Peyton Dillingham hit a solo home run to start the scoring, and a pair of bases-loaded walks made it a 4-2 game, before Tyler Castro capped off the inning with an RBI single, putting the CornBelters ahead 5-2.
• In the bottom of the seventh inning, Normal tacked on four more runs. Ethan Willoughby hit an RBI single, and Jackson Chatterton then plated two more runs off a single of his own. Castro finished the scoring in the inning on a sacrifice flyout to push the deficit to 9-4.
• Normal scored their final run in the bottom of the eighth inning on an RBI sacrifice flyout off the batt of Jackson Blemler.

Up Next

The Hoots remain on the road to take on the Illinois Valley Pistol Shrimp for a two-game series starting on Friday, July 28. First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m. CST. Coverage for the contest can be found at ofallonhoots.com, as well as the team’s Twitter (@ofallonbaseball) and Instagram (ofallonhoots).