West Wins Frontier League All-Star Game

Jereme Milons has been starting rallies for the Southern Illinois Miners for a while now, but getting to bat twice in the first inning of the Frontier League All-Star Game was a little different Wednesday night.

Milons led off the bottom of the first with a single, scored on Tim Grogan's MVP-worthy home run and later drove in a run with a selfless groundout in his second at-bat of the frame to help the West all-stars roll to a 9-2 win over the East in the long-awaited exhibition witnessed by 4,426 spectators at Rent One Park.

As the leadoff hitter for the Miners this season, Milons has been a part of plenty offensive explosions with Southern Illinois winning a league record 20 straight games in compiling a 39-9 record in the first half.

But batting around in the first inning of an all-star game? No one could logically expect something like that to happen. Even with a record 10 members of the Miners in the dugout along with the host team's coaching staff.

"No. Never," Milons said. "But, that's how our season has been going. We were talking about that in the dugout, how we've done that a couple times. It's all about having fun. Looking at the lineup, it was almost like our regular team. So I just wanted to help get something going."

Grogan wouldn't have produced the most fantasy points of the game, but the Florence infielder snatched the Alex Gamez MVP Award with no argument by crushing a fastball from East starter James Albury of Oakland County for a home run out of the deepest part of Rent One Park.

But the rally was just starting. Normal's Daniel Cox drew a walk, then after Gateway's Charlie Lisk struck out, a pair of Miners followed with consecutive hits as Stephen Head and Brad Miller both singled. Florence's Stephen Shults plated a run before Gateway outfielder Jason Patton doubled to bring in both Head and Miller.

That chased Albury from the game as Oakland County manager Gera Alvarez was forced to bring in Lake Erie's Josh Roberts an inning earlier than planned. Roberts was greeted by Evansville's Estee Harris ripping an RBI single to bring Milons to the plate for a second time.

Milons waited back and hit a ground ball to the right side to bring in another run for the West squad, upping the lead to 7-0. Grogan's second plate appearance of the inning resulted in the third out.

"It's very rare in an all-star game that your leadoff hitter comes back and swings again with one out," said Miners manager Mike Pinto, who was able to guide the West squad due to his team's outstanding first half. "But how nice for our guys. (Milons) starts a rally with a base hit, goes the other way, and does what he's done for us all year."

All that came after Miners ace Joe Augustine pitched a perfect top half of the first, then gave his temporary team a brief exhortation.

"When I came out I just said, 'Hey let's get some runs,'" Augustine said. "They got me a good amount. We'll take it."

Shults added a solo homer in the third inning and Patton tripled and scored on a groundout by Harris in the eighth for the other runs. Shults and Patton both finished 2-for-4 with two RBI and two runs scored, but it was Grogan's power display that took home the game's lone award, giving Florence a four-year streak of claiming the MVP honor.

Grogan and Head both joined them with two hits, while Miller and Milons finished with one hit apiece. As for the other Miners, third baseman Nate Hall made arguably the top defensive play of the night, Brendan Akashian caught for three innings and relievers Dustin Brader and Mike Damchuk both pitched one inning, with Jake McMurran playfully taking credit for Patton's triple and run in the eighth by virtue of his coaching first base at the time.

Brader, who was named as a replacement for Ryan Kussmaul after his signing by the White Sox, entered in the fifth and had his first pitch sent over the fence by Kalamazoo's Matt Maloney, who is not only an outfielder for the Kings but is currently serving as the team's interim field manager.

Damchuk gave up two hits in the eighth but did not allow a run.

Augustine did not get credit for the win due to a scoring loophole that gave credit to Gateway's Mark Brackman, who pitched the third inning. But most importantly, the Miners' aggressive righthander was able to relax and enjoy most of the game with his team holding a comfortable lead.

"It was a great time," Augustine said. "It's always good when you've been playing every day and it kind of turns into a grind because you're out here working so hard, it's nice to come out and have some fun every once in a while."

Pinto also tried to enjoy himself, but with a week of swirling activities that will only get crazier with a speaking engagement planned in Toronto on Thursday, the manager was forced to laugh over an exhausted smile. The most fun was getting there.

"I didn't want anyone else managing in my dugout," Pinto said after the game. "This is my dugout here and it has been for four seasons and I plan on it staying that way in the future. I didn't want anyone else down there. It was important for us to be in first place at the half so we could do that."

Once that mission was accomplished, the rest took care of itself.

"We have some really good guys in this league," Pinto said. "It was nice to get to know some guys who have been on the other side of the field who I didn't know very well. I love this league and our division.

"To have the chance to write out that lineup, it was pretty nice."