The Rangers knocked off the Miami Valley Thunder 13-6 on Tuesday night June 9 at Action Sports Center. While Brandon Riley was breaking a franchise milestone, Jonmarc Lippincott recorded a league first.

 

Rangers’ catcher Brandon Riley stands alone atop the franchise’s list of consecutive games with at least one hit. Needing one knock to surpass Lippincott’s 17-year old hit streak record of 25 straight games, Riley didn’t waste any time in lacing a leadoff single to left-center in the bottom of the first inning. It was overheard in the dugout that it had been a dream of his since the hit streak mark was last set when he was in kindergarten.

 

Meanwhile, Lippincott’s single in the sixth inning marked the first time in league history that a player reached the 600-hit plateau.

 

As for the game itself, the Rangers took the early lead in the bottom of the first inning on a sac fly from Brennen Glass and RBI single from Robert Riley. A Steve Marshall RBI double in the second increased the lead to 3-0. The Thunder got on the board in the third on a run-scoring single from Braydon Gomes. The Thunder cut the lead to one run in the fifth after a popup got lost in the lights, prolonging the inning for Evan Koogler to smack an RBI single to right to make it 3-2.

 

Just like this past Sunday when the Rangers tallied 15 runs in their final at-bat, the offense nearly matched that number, scoring 10 times in the final two ABs.

 

In the fifth, Lippincott and Rob Armour drove in a run with singles, Brandon Riley added an RBI double and Phil Dickerson finished the inning’s scoring with a sac fly. In the sixth, Lippincott had an RBI single, followed by a 2-run single from Armour. Brandon Riley hit his second RBI double in as many innings and Dickerson added another sac fly to push the lead to 13-2.

 

The Thunder would push across 4 runs in the top of the 7th as Eric Becker, Jeff Skaggs, and Richard Kensinger all had doubles.

 

Shawn Schmitt went the distance for his third win of the season, striking out four.

Offensive highlights: Brandon Riley 4-5, 2R, 2RBI, 2 doubles; Phil Dickerson 1-3 2RBI; Nick Gilmore 3-3 3R; Steve Marshall 3-4 RBI, 2 doubles; Jonmarc Lippincott 2-3 2R, 2RBI; Rob Armour 2-4, 2R, 3RBI.

 

Historical Notes: Robert Riley is 1 run shy of 200 career runs scored. Robert is 2 at-bats short of 500 career ABs. Brandon Riley’s hit streak extends to 26 games. Jonmarc Lippincott recorded his 600th MVABL hit. Jonmarc needs 5 runs to reach 500 career runs scored. Joe Becker is 1 win shy of 20 MVABL victories.