Baseball: ThunderBolts beat Wild Things 5-2
By Steve Millar For Sun-Times Media May 30, 2012 8:04PM
Windy City ThunderBolts pitcher Mike Recchia at practice at Standard Bank Stadium. | Joseph P. Meier~Sun-Times Media
Updated: July 6, 2012 9:15AM
Home sure has been sweet for Mike Recchia and the Windy City ThunderBolts.
Crestwood native Recchia continued his dominance on the mound Wednesday and the T-Bolts moved to 6-0 this season at Standard Bank Stadium with a 5-2 win over the Washington Wild Things.
Recchia (3-0) turned in the longest outing of his pro career, allowing one run on three hits in eight innings. He struck out six and walked two as the T-Bolts improved to 8-3.
“That was a little bit different,” said Recchia, who pitched exclusively out of the bullpen in two years in the New York Yankees system. “It’s been a while since I’ve got that far in a game. I felt good and felt like everything was working.”
Recchia took a no-hitter into the seventh before allowing a leadoff triple to Robbie Garvey.
“It’s always in the back of your mind when you have a no-hitter going,” Recchia said. “Some guys like to get all quiet, but I like to stay loose and keep talking and joking around with the guys.”
Shain Stoner followed Garvey’s triple with an RBI single for Washington (5-6). That’s the only earned run Recchia has allowed in 202/3 innings this year.
Windy City had eight hits through five innings, but had just two unearned runs to show for it as clutch at-bats were lacking.
Billy Nowlin changed that in the sixth with a two-out RBI single with the bases loaded.
Brandon Decker was then hit by a pitch to make it 4-0.
Brandon Pearl tripled and scored on a Chris Wade single in the seventh.
Pearl finished 4-for-4 after coming into the game with two hits all season.
“I was just staying quieter with my bat and using my hands a bit more,” Pearl said. “(T-Bolts manager Morgan Burkhart) and I worked on that, and when the (league) MVP (award) is named after a guy, you’ve got to listen to him.”
Tyson Corley got the final two outs for his fifth save.
Chad Cregar reached base four times for the T-Bolts with a double, single and two walks (one intentional).
