TRAVERSE CITY, MI – Jose Vargas had four hits including a pair of homers while driving in five and Reid Kelly tossed eight innings of two run ball as the Traverse City Beach Bums topped the Normal CornBelters 8-5 in front of 3,788 fans at Wuerfel Park. Jose Vargas takes a swing in a Pete Walters photo.
After Normal plated a run in the top of the fourth on a sac fly by Robert Brooks to score Steven Felix for a 1-0 CornBelters lead, the Beach Bums came right back in the bottom of the inning. Leading things off, Vargas took a 1-1 offering from Tyler Lavigne over the leftfield fence for his 13th homer of the year, knotting the game at 1-1. Traverse City wasn’t done there as Chase Burch walked, Kyle Colligan singled and Travis Higgs was hit by a pitch to load the bases before a Matt Howard walk forced home Burch for a 2-1 TC edge.
Normal got the run back in the fifth as a Felix single scored Chico Gomez to level the game at 2-2. In the bottom of the inning, Vargas struck again, clocking his 14th long ball of the year to left, clearing the perimeter fence for a lead the Beach Bums would not relinquish.
Traverse City would push things in the sixth as the Beach Bums loaded the bases on singles by Howard and Kyle Eveland and a walk to Ryan Still before Vargas stepped to the dish again. The slugger waited out a 3-2 count from Lavigne before driving a ball into the right-centerfield gap for a triple, clearing the bases and putting TC up 6-2. A subsequent single by Burch scored Vargas for a 7-2 lead.
After the Beach Bums added a run in the seventh on a Howard groundout that scored Colligan who had walked and moved up on a pair of wild pitches, Normal would make things interesting in the ninth, scoring three times before Nick Capito was able to record the final two outs for his second save.
On the other side of the ball, Kelly (6-1) got the win with eight innings of two run ball, striking out seven along the way. He was at his strongest in the last two innings, retiring the CornBelters on a trio of popups in the seventh before striking out the side in the eighth. Lavigne (3-3) took the loss for Normal.
For Vargas, the big night extended his hitting streak to a season-high eight games while also pushing his average above the .300 mark on the year and vaulted him into the league lead in both homers and RBI.
