MARION, Ill. - The Miners lost the first game of the second half to River City, 7-0, Friday night from Rent One Park. Josh Lowey grabbed the victory as he worked seven scoreless innings for the Rascals. Brendon Malkowski toss the loss and moved his record to 6-3. The River City attack was led by the top of the order, who scored five of the game’s seven runs for the first-place Rascals. Stephen Holdren blasted his 12th home run of the season. The Miners were shut out for the first time this season as they fell a full three games out of first place.

River City came out of the gates hot to start the second half of the season, pushing across two runs in the first inning. Chris McClendon led off the game with a triple, his first of three hits on the night. He came around to score on Doug Sanders’ single, his first of two RBIs on the night. Sanders then scored on Joash Brodin’s sacrifice fly.

The Rascals scored two more runs, extending their lead in the third inning when Stephen Holdren crushed a two-run blast into the River City bullpen. It was Holdren’s fourth hit of the season against the Miners, all four for home runs. River City scored one in the fifth inning and added two more runs in the eighth, extending the Miners deficit to seven runs. Sanders, Holdren and Brodin led the Rascal offensive attack, all with multiple RBI nights.

Josh Lowey got stronger as the game continued and may have gone deeper if not for the lopsided score of the game. The righty allowed no runs off four hits through seven innings of solid work en route to his fifth win of the season. Lowey struck out six batters and walked just two Miners all night.

Sean Harrell and Will Block each recorded multi-hit nights for the Miners. However, Southern Illinois could not come up with the big hit as they stranded a pair of runners in each of the last four innings. The Miners stranded 10 runners in total, six in scoring position.

Brendon  Malkowski took the loss, his third of 2011, as he allowed five runs off six hits, through six innings of work. The tall righty struck out two River City hitters and walked two.

Saturday it will be a special 4:05 p.m. first pitch when Miners righty Ryan Zink (3-2, 2.63) takes the mound against River City lefty Zach Roberston (4-0, 3.38) who looks to remain undefeated this year. The game will be followed by a post-game Remedy Drive concert in the Budweiser Bullpen Bar N Grille.

Follow WPSD Sports on Twitter by clicking here.
Follow WPSD Sports on Facebook by clicking here.