The Rangers weathered several brief monsoons Thursday night at AIA and put up a deluge of runs to knock off the Wright Knights 16-1 in 5 innings.

​

With the on-again, off-again showers, starter Brandon Saylor probably didn't get the usual pre-game preparations he was used to.  Saylor fell victim to a little wildness (6 walks) over 3 innings, but helped his own cause by striking out 5 and leaving 6 runners stranded. 

​

In the bottom of the first, Nick Gilmore led off with a single and scored on a 2-out single from Cooper Nolte. After Jonmarc Lippincott singled Nolte to third, Cooper went homeward on a balk from Knights pitcher Anthony Jackson.  

​

The top of the 2nd saw the first 2 Knights batters reach via the walk. However, Saylor K'd the side to prevent any damage. Rob Pederson's RBI single in the bottom half of the inning increased the Rangers lead to 3-0. 

​

The Knights got on the board in the third as Matthew Stivers walked, and Zach Gomia singled, and Jerel Bristol added an RBI hit. After a groundout, another walk loaded the bases.  Saylor then bared down and got Glenn Yawger to pop up, and then struck out former Ranger Brody Dunlevy to end the threat. The Rangers made it 5-1 in the bottom of the third as Eric Becker had a run-scoring triple. Becker scored on a Chris Ridl groundout.

​

Joe Becker took over on the mound in the fourth and got some outstanding defensive support from centerfielder Kyle Moyer en route to a 1-2-3 frame. Three more runs came around to score for the Rangers in the bottom of the 4th. Gilmore, Pederson, and Moyer all singled in succession to plate a run. Two more runs were tallied on wild pitches.

​

Joe struck out 2 in a scoreless 5th inning. The Rangers finished off the run-rule outing with 8 runs in the bottom of the inning. Pederson had an RBI groundout. Moyer and Eric Becker had RBI singles. Saylor finished it off with a bases loaded double over the head of the centerfielder to plate 2 runs and end the game.