Lugnuts fall to Peoria in game one of championship series

Peoria, Ill. - After securing the Eastern Division Championship on Sunday, the Lansing Lugnuts opened game one of the League Championship with a 9-2 blowout loss to Peoria on Monday night.

“We’ll just chalk it up as a butt-kicking, that’s what we got,” Lansing manager Julio Garcia said. “The series isn‘t over by a long shot - we’ll come out (Tuesday) and see if we can‘t put things together a little better.”

The Chiefs’ bats were hot in the bottom of the first, tagging Lugnut lefty Carmen Pignatiello for a double, a triple and three runs.

In the second inning, things got worse for the Lugnuts. Two consecutive Peoria players slugged doubles, both to deep left. Both scored by the inning’s end, increasing Lansing’s deficit to five.

Pignatiello was replaced by right hander Dan Foli in the second. In just 1 1/3 innings, Pignatiello scattered five hits and surrendered five earned runs while striking out one, walking one and throwing a wild pitch. He took the loss for the Lugnuts.

“Things go in cycles,” Garcia said. “(The starters) have been pitching well, and now they’re in a little bit of a slump.

“They‘ve tried to get out of it but unfortunately it hasn‘t worked out.”

The Chiefs would extend their lead in the fourth with four more hits. Two consecutive singles, a double and another single saw center fielder Rick Asadoorian, second baseman Shaun Boyd and left fielder Jesse Roman round the bases to put Peoria up 8-0.

Lansing finally countered with a run of its own in the fifth inning, when center fielder Mike Mallory scored on a double off the bat of catcher Lukas McKnight.

“When you get down right away, (it) makes it tough to climb back the whole way,” McKnight said. “It was just too big of a chasm to climb out of - it’s tough but it’s one of those days you have in baseball, you just have to keep going.”

The Lugnuts would score once more when shortstop Jemel Spearman drove in third baseman Travis Welsch with a double. Lansing was outhit 14-6.

Chief southpaw Tyler Johnson earned the win for the Chiefs and moved to 2-0 in the playoffs. Johnson fanned 10 Lansing batters in six innings on the mound.

Game two of the best-of-five series will be played at 6:35 p.m. today at O’Brien Field in Peoria.