Kings Fall 5-3 In Traverse City

The Traverse City Beach Bums gained a share of first place by holding off the Kalamazoo Kings 5-3 at Wuerfel Park on Friday night. Kalamazoo entered Wuerfel Park a game ahead of the Beach Bums in the early East Division standings.

Kalamazoo scored in the first inning against Beach Bums starter Brett Bostelman to grab an early 1-0 lead. Chad Rothford plated Jeff Grose with a two-out RBI single. The Beach Bums came right back to tie the game in the bottom of the first with three straight hits against Kalamazoo starter Joe DiPietro. Jake Whitesides drove in Brad Roblin with a single to tie the game. The RBI was the league leading 17th of the season for Whitesides.

The Beach Bums took the lead in the second inning against DiPietro and never trailed the remainder of the contest. Mike Epping led off the frame with an opposite field single and stole second and third on consecutive pitches. Epping has six stolen bases in 2008. Kyle Maunus walked to place runners at the corners and Brad Miller gave the Beach Bums a 2-1 edge with a groundout. Jeff Brown extended the lead to 3-1 when he drove in the first of three runs with an infield single to plate Maunus.

DiPietro failed to make it out of the fourth as the Beach Bums tacked on two more runs to take a 5-1 lead. Jeff Brown drove in two more runs, scoring Kyle Maunus and Steve Young with a double into left field. Jon Troop relieved DiPietro and kept the Beach Bums at bay the rest of the way, retiring 13 of the 14 batters he faced.