Rascal Don Lisi Dominates Miners

Don Lisi made a statement Tuesday night.

The River City righthander turned in his most impressive outing of the season to power the Rascals to a 6-3 win over rival Southern Illinois in front of 900 fans at .

Lisi, who improved to 7-2, struck out a career-high 10 batters and allowed just one run on three hits in seven masterful innings.

Most importantly, he jumped to the front of the pack in the battle for the No. 3 spot in the post-season starting rotation.

Lisi's success against Southern, who the Rascals will play in the West Division championship series, puts him in good position to start Game 3 in the best-of-five series, which begins next Wednesday in O'Fallon.

The Rogers, AR native has spent time in the bullpen and as a starter in his rookie season. He simply wants to contribute to the title run.

"I'm here to do what's needed to win a championship," Lisi said. "Whatever our guys need me to do to get a ring on their fingers - I'll do it."

Lisi used a killer slider to mow down the hard-hitting Miners.

"He dominated the game with his slider," said River City manager Steve Brook. "He definitely kept them off balance."

Lisi, a recent standout at Central Missouri State University, retired the leadoff hitter in each of his seven innings. He threw 102 pitches - 66 for strikes. Lisi retired nine batters in a row until an error ended the streak.

"He worked his game and it worked out for him," said River City catcher Keenan Long. "He makes the hitters adjust to him - and they didn't." 

Lisi seems to excel against the Miners (57-34). He has allowed just two earned runs in 17 innings covering three appearances.

Doug Sanders and Bobby Burk provided Lisi with all the necessary offensive support. Sanders drilled a bases-loaded single in the fourth to put his team up to stay 2-1. Burk, who finished 3-for-4, blasted a two-run homer in the fifth, his 15th round-tripper of the season.

"I didn't think it was going out," said Burk. "I thought I popped it up."

The drive barely cleared the outstretched glove of left fielder Eric Suttle.

The Rascals improved to 7-3 against Southern this season including a 4-0 mark at T.R. Hughes.

River City (64-26) used a pair of key two-out blows to score three times in the fourth inning off former Rascals pitcher Ryan Zink. Jason Patton started the rally with a leadoff walk. Jareck West followed with a single to left. With two away, Chris McClendon was intentionally walked to load the bases for Sanders, who ripped a pitch over the glove of third baseman Nate Hall and into left field to bring in a pair of runs. Logan Parker followed with a run-scoring single to push the lead to 3-1.

"It was good to get back on the winning track," said Brook.

The Rascals had lost their previous two games in Florence. 

McClendon, the Rascals' leadoff hitter, returned to the lineup with a bang. He had played only three games since July 23 due to hamstring injury. He singled in his first trip to the plate and lined out to left in the second before the intentional walk. Brook is trying to ease McClendon back and removed him in the fifth inning.

Notes from the Dawg Pound

 The Rascals will use co-aces Josh Lowey (10-2, 2.53) and Zack Sterner (10-3, 3.17) as their starters in the first two games of the best-of-five Western Division championship series. 

• Southern Illinois, which lost four key hurlers due to injury during the regular season, will likely counter with David Harden (7-5, 2.88) and Shawn Joy (6-4, 3.70).
• River City is averaging 5.1 runs per game the last 19 contests.
• Rascals catcher Danny Sawyer leads the team with 22 stolen bases. He entered the season with only five lifetime steal in the Frontier League.
• River City is 37-6 when scoring the first run of the game.
• Chad Maddox has returned to college and will be out for the rest of the regular season. He is expected to return for the playoffs.
• Outfielder Stephen Holdren, who is a strong candidate for the league MVP award, was walked the first three times he came to the plate Tuesday.