MARION — Kurt Wertz Jr. and Alex De Leon both hit mammoth home runs as the Southern Illinois Miners kept their season alive with a 7-2 win over River City in Game 3 of the best-of-five Frontier League Division Series.
River City holds a 2-1 lead in the series with Game 4 on Saturday night at Rent One Park at 6:05 p.m. If a fifth game is necessary it will be Sunday at 5:05 p.m. Tickets for all games in Marion are $5.
Rick Teasley pitched 6-1/3 innings with four strikeouts and one walk while scattering seven hits. The lefty was lifted in the seventh for Kyle Tinius with two runners on base and Tinius stranded them both.
Wertz Jr. bombed his homer off the signs above the bullpen in right field in the second inning. Then in the third, De Leon crushed a moonshot to left field that never came back down in the lights. It scored Aaron Gates, who doubled, and Shane Kennedy, who walked.
The Rascals cut the lead to 4-2 but couldn't pull even and the Miners added insurance in the eighth when Earley doubled and later scored on a single by Craig Massey, who also scored in the frame on a hit by Steve Marino. Riley Moore, who had two hits, also drove in a run in the inning.
In the other Division Series game, Evansville won at Joliet, 10-4, to take a 2-1 lead over the East Division champions.
