Jack Newman, Carter Rust and Austin Stalker combined for five hits and six RBIs as the Johnstown Mill Rats defeated the Normal CornBelters 8-3 at Sargent’s Stadium on Thursday
night.
Johnstown(8-6) starter George Henkel was impressive Thursday evening, tossing five innings of one-run baseball while recording six strikeouts in his first appearance since June 5 versus Dubois County.
Mill Rats left-hander Mac Yarbrough threw two perfect innings in relief of Henkel, striking out three CornBelters hitters along the way.
Pitching wasn’t the only thing clicking for the Mill Rats, as Johnstown chased
CornBelters(6-9) starter Lane Funneman before the end of the second inning, as Funneman allowed five earned runs, including four runs in the first inning from Newman, Rust and Austin Stalker RBI hits.
The Mill Rats managed two more runs in the second, as Wesley Parker batted in a run and Carter Rust beat out a throw from second base on an error from Zach Zychowski.
Both offenses would silence for a bit until the top of the fourth, as Normal third baseman William Flanigan, who had two hits on the evening, batted in the first run of the game for the CornBelters on a sharply hit single.
Johnstown added two more runs off ambidextrous pitcher PJ Rogan in the seventh, as both Newman and Stalker collected their second RBI hits of the evening. Rogan finished the evening with two earned runs over two innings.
CornBelters manager Billy DuBois was tossed from the game after both benches began chirping back and forth, with DuBois unhappy for a large portion of the evening with the umpiring crew, which caused a 37 minute delay due to communication issues.
Normal managed another run in the eighth from shortstop Eddie Letamendi off Johnstown right-hander William Oczkowski, who allowed three hits and collected a strikeout in his lone inning of work.
Right-hander Brock DePute shut things down in the ninth, securing a Mill Rats victory in the Mill Rats first home game since June 2.
Johnstown continues their seven-game home-stand on Friday night as they aim for a two- game sweep of the CornBelters at Sargent’s Stadium, looking for win number nine on the 2024 Prospect League campaign and they remain in a tight race in the standings.