To Slammers manager Jeff Isom, the split in two Frontier League playoff games at Evansville put his team in a good position.
“We feel like now the advantage turns to us,” Isom said. “We’ve got three games at home, three if we need it. We feel pretty comfortable playing at home.”
Just not Friday night.
The Slammers were held to one hit through five innings, fell behind 8-1 and lost 10-4 at Silver Cross Field in the third game of the best-of-five division series.
Joliet played without top hitter Carter Bell, who suffered a hamstring injury in Wednesday’s 9-5 loss at Evansville. Bell was 3-for-8 with a home run and two RBIs in the first two games.
Left-hander Chris Rice will pitch the fourth game for Joliet at 6:05 p.m. Saturday at Silver Cross Field. The Slammers must win to force a fifth and deciding game Sunday.
Right-hander Shane Bryant was lifted Friday after just 4 1/3 innings (6 hits, 5 runs). Evansville scored at least one run from the second through the seventh innings.
“They’re a right-handed dominant hitting team, so we thought throwing a right-hander out there probably is our best shot,” Isom said before Friday’s game.
The Slammers went ahead 1-0 in the first inning on an RBI double by Jake Gronsky. But former Joliet pitcher Hunter Ackerman mystified the Slammers until Zarley Zalewski’s sixth-inning single.
Kent State product Zalewski was 4-for-6 with a homer and three RBIs in the two games in Evansville.
“He’s swinging the bat very well right now,” Isom said. “They’ve been throwing some pretty good pitches to him. He’s been having some very good at-bats.”
Slammers ace Liam O’Sullivan, the league’s pitcher of the year, got the win in the series opener (7 1/3 innings, two hits, two runs, eight strikeouts).
More Top Picks Ratings
“He threw the ball very well,” Isom said. “That was big for us, winning that first game was huge. You definitely don’t want to get in a situation where you’re two games behind.”
The Slammers made the playoffs for the first time since they won the league in 2011, their inaugural season.
East Division champ Joliet finished 51-45 in the regular season, nine games better than the 2015 team.
Evansville (55-40) was second in the West Division to Southern Illinois (63-33). The Miners defeated River City 7-2 Friday after they lost the first two games of the series.
The best-of-five championship series is scheduled to start Tuesday.
Tim Tierney is a freelance writer for the Daily Southtown.