By: Shelby Dermer

CINCINNATI, OHIO -- The Cincinnati Steam (9-5) used a five-run seventh inning to break a 2-2 tie and split a two-game set with the first-place Lima Locos (10-4) on Sunday night at Max McLeary Field. 

With two runners in scoring position and two outs in the seventh inning, Lima manager Brian Garman elected to pitch to Cincinnati's leading hitter Dallas Beaver -- a decision that would prove costly when Beaver lined the first pitch out of the hand of Locos' reliever Robbie Knox into left field, scoring Will Vogelsang and Jace Mercer to give Cincinnati a 4-2 lead. 

After Mike Moffatt worked a six-pitch walk, first baseman Matt Warkentin and outfielder Blaine Griffiths followed suit with back-to-back RBI knocks to push across three more runs and give the Steam a five-run advantage. 

Speed beat the double-trouble brought on by the Lima offense on Sunday. While the Locos' offense racked up five extra-base hits in the first four innings off Steam starter Logan Heintzman, Vogelsang and Mercer were dawning a burglar's outfit on the base paths.

Vogelsang came into the game with four stolen bases and swiped three more on Sunday without the benefit of a hit. The Miami product reached on a dropped third strike in the third inning, stole second, then came across to tie the game at one on a two-out RBI single by shortstop Chris Givin. 

Two innings later, Vogelsang was plunked with two outs. After stealing second and advancing to third on a throwing error, he raced around to score the tying run again on a RBI single by Mercer. In at-bat number three, Vogelsang started Cincinnati's mammoth seventh inning with a one-out walk, followed by a third straight successful steal of second and later, a third run scored on Beaver's go-ahead two-run single. 

Mercer also stole three bases, bringing his team-leading total up to nine on the season, while also collecting a team-high three hits in Cincinnati's seventh home victory of 2017. 

Heintzman, coming off a six-inning shutout victory over Xenia one week earlier, notched a second consecutive quality start by tossing 6 1/3 innings of one-run ball, yielding seven hits and striking out five. 

Alex Benavides walked three of the five batters he faced, but still earned his first victory of the season. The left-hander relieved Heintzman with one out in the seventh and got out of a two-on, two-out jam by getting Lima right fielder Will Robertson to pop out. 

Benavides walked the first two batters of the eighth, but University of Cincinnati product Clayton Colvin allowed just one inherited runner to score while retiring the final six batters of the game to nail down the series split. 

Game Notes

- Sunday marked the first Steam victory over Lima since June 21, 2015, snapping a five-game losing streak. Cincinnati is now 13-11 lifetime at home against the Locos

- Cincinnati improved to 7-2 at its home venue this season with the win, averaging just under eight runs (7.77) per game

- Steam starting pitchers have tallied five quality starts in the last nine games, combining to go 4-0 with a 2.38 ERA with just 12 walks and 37 strikeouts in that span

- Dallas Beaver is hitting .462 with runners in scoring position this season and is ninth in the GLSCL in overall batting average (.364) for any player with 50-plus at-bats

- Cincinnati came into the game with the league's highest team batting average (.296)

- In three games since joining the club, newcomer Matt Warkentin (Johnson County Community College) is 5-11 with two runs scored and two RBI

- Infielder/pitcher Jake Bourke missed the game with a wrist injury

What's next?

The Steam will travel east to Athens, Ohio for the first of a two-game set on Tuesday against the Southern Ohio Copperheads (7-6), who racked up 21 runs in a series split with the Xenia Scouts (6-7) over the weekend. Cincinnati is 0-1 at Bob Wren Stadium this season, losing in walk-off fashion to the Copperheads on June 14th.