On a wet, rain-shortened night, the Queen City Crush were to take on the Ozark Mountain Wild for a Tuesday night double header. Mother nature decided to bring the rain and lightning and force us to play one, seven inning game and move the double header to Thursday.

After a two-hour delay, both teams were able to play with the visiting Wild starting Christopher Mercier on the mound and the home team Crush starting Tom Tewes. Tom Tewes shut down the Wild in the top half of the first with one strikeout, one fly out, and one runner caught stealing. In the bottom half of the first inning, the Crush struck first scoring two runs on four hits. Jackson Berney scored Ross Indlecoffer with a single to right after Indelcoffer hit a double. Berney then came around to score on a bases loaded single from Josh Stivers. The Wild were able to get out of the inning on a double play from the Wild centerfielder Zach Reeder who threw out Baylor Hinz at the plate with a tremendous throw.

The Crush added another run in the bottom of the fourth as Tyler James drove in Nikko Calabro from first with a towering shot that careened off the left field wall. However, in the top of the fifth, the Wild mounted a comeback by scoring three runs as Nolan Ard drove in Brant Schaffitzel with a double to left after Schaffitzel reached by a walk and the stole second base. Two batters later, Sam Parrish drove in Ard with a single of his own. After a walk that loaded the bases, Ben Sellers scored the third and final run of the inning on a fielder’s choice off the bat of Crit Williams.

As the game headed into the seventh tied at three apiece, the Crush shut down the Wild in order as Corey Dudley, who relived Tewes in the fifth inning, induced two ground outs and a fly out. With momentum on their side, the Crush sent their top of the lineup to the plate. The Wild countered with Isaac Carlson after Joel Singleton threw the fifth and sixth innings only giving up two hits. After getting two quick outs, Jackson Berney reached on a two out walk, advanced to third on a double by Baylor Hinz, and scored the winning run on an error by the Wild shortstop.

Carlson was given the loss and fell to 1-1 on the summer. Corey Dudley picked up his second win of the summer and lowered his era to 1.45.

With the win, the Crush move to 8-8 on the year and are four games back of first place. The Wild fall to 5-10 on the year, 6.5 games out of first. Both teams will continue their weekday series with a double header Thursday night.