Boomers drop home opener to Thunderbolts

The Schaumburg Boomers fell 2-1 to the Windy City Thunderbolts in its home opener Friday night despite not allowing a single earned run.

Right fielder Dusty Robinson gave Schaumburg (1-6) its lone hit of the contest with a deep shot in left field for a double in the second inning. Robinson later scored to give the Boomers a 1-0 lead.

The two teams then locked into a temporary stalemate.

Second baseman Jordan Dean, who was moved to short stop following an injury to Mikal Hill in the fourth inning, overthrew Ino Patron to put Thunderbolts (6-1) catcher Corey Bass on first base to lead off the seventh inning. Two outs later, Taylor Smart hit the pitch toward Dean, who again overthrew Patron, giving Bass the green light to run home for the score.

Kevin Barker followed up by launching a ball toward left field for a double, driving home another unearned run for the Thunderbolts and giving them a 2-1 lead.

Despite the strong performance from the bullpen, the Boomers failed to muster up enough offense to overcome the one-run deficit.

"It's been a long time since Dean's been at short, so there's a little forgiveness there," Boomers manager Jamie Bennett said. "It's tough to get a guy out of position that early in the game, but bottom line, the bats were missing a little bit tonight. Hitting is contagious, and it was contagious in the wrong way tonight."

Right-hander Scott Schultz, who lost his first decision of the season, went 6 innings and allowed 4 hits and 2 unearned runs with 5 strikeouts. Right-hander Patrick Dolan entered the game in the seventh inning allowing just 1 hit and 2 walks while striking out 4 batters. Right-hander Derek DeYoung finished the contest in the ninth, allowing 1 hit and recording 1 strike out.

The opening weekend festivities will continue Saturday night as Boomers Stadium will feature another night of postgame fireworks and a performance by the Jesse White Tumblers. Sunday afternoon Boomers Stadium welcomes all pets in its Bark in the Park event. A pregame pet parade will be followed by in-game pet contests and a postgame run the bases with both pets and fans.

Both Saturday and Sunday feature face painting and balloon twisting presented by Painting Faces 4 U and base running for all fans after the games.

Boomer left-hander Gunnar Kines will start for Saturday's 6 p.m. contest against Thunderbolts right-hander Clay Chapman.