BEACH BUMS WELCOME VETERANS HOME IN STYLE

7/3/2010 - TRAVERSE CITY, MI –- Matt Brown ended just a homerun shy of the cycle and Scott Mueller pitched two perfect innings for his sixth save as the Traverse City Beach Bums downed the Normal CornBelters on Welcome Home Night at Wuerfel Park in front of a team record 6.542 fans. John L. Russell photograph of Matt Brown hitting his triple.

Traverse City raced out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning as Brown led off with a triple and came in to score on a groundball by the newest Beach Bum, Chris Engell. After a single by Michael Diaz put runners on first and third, Chase Burch doubled off the wall to bring both Engell and Diaz plateward. The scoring in the inning was capped by an RBI groundout by Bobby Spain.

A homerun by Ross McCoy would bring Normal back to 4-1 in the second but the Beach Bums struck again in the fourth. Chris Engell delivered the first hit of his pro career to lead off the frame. Two batters later, Chase Burch drove him in for a 5-1 TC lead. Traverse City pushed across two more runs in the fifth on an RBI single by Jason Codiroli and an RBI double by Brown to put the Beach Bums up 7-1.

The CornBelters made a game of it by using the long ball as in the sixth, a Steven Alexander homer made it 7-3. Later in the inning, Normal would score a run on a Brad Augustine single to get to within 7-4. The next inning, things got tighter as Jeff Cowan poked a two-run shot to bring the TC lead to a single run.

Not letting the game slip away, the Beach Bums called on closer Scott Mueller for a two inning save. Mueller pitched to form, retiring all six batters he faced, striking out Cowan for the last out in front of the roaring crowd. Enrique Lechuga (3-3) earned the win for Traverse City with 5.1 innings of work. Dan Blewett (3-4) took the loss for Normal.

In the game the Beach Bums banged out a season-high 16 hits including the three from Brown to extend his hitting streak to 11 games as well as three from Andrew Marshall. Chase Burch had two hits and drove in three. Paul Cruz, Jason Codiroli and Michael Diaz all recorded multi-hit games for TC.

The series wraps up with a Red-White-n-Blue Family FUNday Sunday at Wuerfel Park as Ryan Platt (4-1, 2.49) takes the hill for the Beach Bums against Kevin Kreier (3-4, 7.20) for Normal. Kids tickets are half price with the purchase of a regular price adult chairback seat. Children ages 5-12 can run the bases after the game and the entire team will be available to sign autographs following the contest. For more information or tickets, call 231-943-0100 or visit tcbeachbums.com.