Chicago Batters St. Paul, Sweeps Series, 10-5
ROSEMONT, Ill. — Trey Vavra and Keon Barnum each drove in three runs and the Chicago Dogs offense continued its red-hot stretch as they defeated the St. Paul Saints, 10-5, to complete the series sweep.
Chicago scored five runs in the bottom of the first and never looked back. Dogs starter Jake Dahlberg (W, 6-5) hurled six effective innings, allowing four hits and four runs — three earned — while striking out seven.
St. Paul struck in the first with three quick runs off of Dahlberg. After a two-run double by Jeremy Martinez, Chesny Young added an RBI single to make it 3-0 Saints.
The Dogs responded in a big way in the bottom half of the frame, sending eleven batters to the plate. Back-to-back doubles by Jordan Dean and Edwin Arroyo to start the inning put Chicago on the board with a run. With the bases loaded four batters later, Vavra ripped a two-run single down the third base line to knot the game at three.
Gustavo Pierre then walked to load the bases for Tony Rosselli, who was hit by a pitch to send another run home and give Chicago the 4-3 lead. Two batters later, Dean drew a bases-loaded walk to score Vavra and make it 5-3, prompting an early exit from Saints starter John Kilichowski (L, 0-1).
Landon Beck retired Arroyo for the final out of the first, finally putting an end to the 47-minute opening inning.
The Saints got within one when John Silviano’s solo homer made it 5-4 in the top of the fourth.
The Dogs pushed their lead back to two in the bottom of the fifth, when Victor Roache scored on a Pierre groundout.
Casey Crosby escaped a bases-loaded jam in the top of the seventh by retiring Saints slugger Josh Allen to preserve the 6-4 lead.
Chicago tacked on one more run in the bottom of the frame. Kelly Dugan doubled and advanced to third on a wild pitch to bring up Vavra, who skied a sacrifice fly to push the score to 7-4 in favor of the Dogs.
Keon Barnum added the exclamation mark in the bottom of the eighth with a three-run homer, his league-leading 22nd of the season.
Luke Wilkins struck out two in a perfect eighth inning and Rich Mascheri worked the ninth to secure the sweep.
By Sam Brief
