7/1/2025
By George Lucas
For the first time in the team’s history, the Johnstown Mill Rats swept a double-header from the Chillicothe Paints Tuesday at Sargent’s Stadium at The Point.
In game one, Chillicothe jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first, but Johnstown responded with three runs of their own in the bottom of the stanza to tie the game at three-all.
The Paints scored in the top of the second for a short-lived 4-3 lead before the Mill Rats took over the game. Johnstown plated five runs in the second, and three in the third to build a commanding 11-4 lead.
Chillicothe added a single tally in the fourth to close the gap to 11-5.
Cooper Rasmussen answered that run–and added another–by cracking his second homerun of the season with Gustavo Gonzalez aboard to make the score 13-5 after four.
Johnstown then added a run in the sixth on Jace Essig’s fourth homerun of the year to pad the lead 14-5 after six complete.
The Paints’ Jacob Buysse crushed his first homerun of the year with a man on in the seventh, but the Rats went on to claim game one 14-7.
The Rats’ Joe Tootle, who will attend the Prospect League All-Star Game next week, upped his record to 3-2 with the win.
Chillicothe’s Dylan Lloyd took the loss, falling to 1-3.
In the nightcap, Johnstown scored in the bottom of the third inning and took a 1-0 lead on Gustavo Gonzalez’ RBI single. That lead held up until the top of the seventh. The Paint’s had bases loaded with one out when Justin Teixiera reached on an error and Mason McManus scored to tie the game at 1-1.
The miscue did not faze the Rats. In the bottom of the seventh, with the bases loaded and none out, Tyler Giordano grounded to short. The throw home was late and off-target, and Sergio DeCello scored the winning run as the Mill Rats walked-off the Paints 2-1 to win game two and sweep the double-header.
E.J. Lott (1-0) picked up the win in relief.
Alex Caudill (2-1) was tagged with his first loss of the season.
The Mill Rats improved to 19-11 overall and 2-2 in the second half. They currently sit in second place tied with Lafayette, and behind the front-running Champion City Kings (5-24/2-0).
Johnstown will welcome the Alton River Dragons for a pair of games Wednesday and Thursday. The teams split a double-header at Alton last month. It is the first ever visit to Sargent’s Stadium at The Point for Alton, who are 11-17 overall and 0-2 in the second half. Alton is currently in last place in the Western Conference South Division.