06/10/2016 12:27 PM -
FRIDAY’S GAME:
DuPage County Hounds (7-4)
at Northwest Indiana Oilmen (5-6)
June 10, 2016 • 7:20 p.m. • Whiting, Ind.
Radio: AM 1230 & 104.7 FM WJOB; NWIOilmen.com
Pitching Matchup
NWI’s Reggie Johnson (Alcorn State / South Holland, Ill.) vs. DuPage County’s Thomas Goodyear (Rockford University / Romeoville, Ill.)
For Starters
The Oilmen have won four straight games and eight consecutive regular season home games dating back to last season. The Oilmen have batted around in an inning at least once in each of the last three games. Their biggest inning of the year came in the sixth of Thursday’s 15-4 drubbing of the Southland Vikings, when the Oilmen posted eight runs. NWI banged out 21 hits for the game, two shy of matching a franchise record set on July 31, 2013, a 17-9 victory over the Lexington Snipes in Game 2 of the MCL Semifinal Series. The Oilmen had three players with four-hit games on Thursday after having only one player (Stefano Belmonte on Sunday against Joliet) with a four-hit performance over the first 10 games of the season. As a team, the Oilmen are hitting .372 at home and .257 on the road this season. The Oilmen had six two-strike hits on Thursday. The team racked up 21 hits in one game on Thursday after not reaching 21 hits for the season until the fourth game of the year.
Inside the Oilmen
Reggie Johnson will make his Oil City Stadium debut on Friday. He holds an 0-2 record and 4.00 ERA in nine innings over his first two starts. The Alcorn State right-hander took the loss against Joliet on May 29 after allowing three runs on six hits in four innings. He also took the defeat against Bloomington on June 2 after yielding just one run on four hits in five innings. Cory Krolikowski snapped out of an 0-for-8 slump with four hits on Thursday. He leads the team in hits with 12 and has three multi-hit games. Krolikowski is also the team leader in stolen bases with five. He tripled on Thursday, joining Zack Forney as the only players with triples this season. Jordan Flint rapped a bases-clearing double on Thursday, his first extra-base hit in an Oilmen uniform. He moves into a tie with Jimmy Govern for the team lead with eight RBIs. The Oilmen are 15-for-20 in stolen base attempts this season.
Inside the Hounds
The Hounds enter Friday’s game attempting to rebound from a 7-1 loss to Bloomington on Wednesday. They surrendered five runs in the eighth and one in the ninth to allow the Bobcats to pull away. Starting pitcher Thomas Goodyear has pitched in four games and made one start so far this summer. He holds a 1-1 record with an 8.64 ERA and has issued 10 walks and recorded nine strikeouts. He took the loss in his only start of the year, June 4 at Joliet, when he allowed five runs (four earned) on six hits and five walks in 4 2/3 innings. Goodyear was one of 29 pitchers to appear for the Hounds last season, working three innings against the Oilmen on July 11 and allowing three runs on five hits to notch the save in his only game. The Hounds remain the top base running team in the league with 40 steals.
About the Matchup
The Oilmen dropped the first meeting of the year between the two teams 9-3 on May 28. The Hounds lead the all-time series 19-16. The Oilmen won five of the nine meetings between the two squads last year, winning the season series with the Hounds for the first time in franchise history. These two teams have a long history of playing one another dating all the way back to the first-ever game for both teams in 2012.
