Boomers blast Tri-City, improve to 5-0

The Schaumburg Boomers posted early-season highs in runs and hits with Tuesday’s 9-1 victory over the Tri-City ValleyCats at Wintrust Field.

Schaumburg, which stayed unbeaten at 5-0, opened the scoring in the bottom of the second. Ryan McCarthy tripled off the wall and scored on a two-out double from Brett Milazzo. After Tri-City tied the game in the third, Seth Gray pounded a three-run homer down the line in right to hand the Boomers a 4-1 advantage. The homer was his first of the year.

Alec Craig knocked home a run with a single in the fourth while Kyle Fitzgerald and Tyler Depreta-Johnson both launched home runs in the fifth. Gray added another RBI as two more scored in the sixth to account for the final.

The Boomers finished with 13 hits, six of which were for extra bases. Gray totaled three hits, scored three times and drove home four. McCarthy and Depreta-Johnson both tacked on three hits.

Brendan Knoll settled in after working his way through early trouble, retiring seven in a row at one point to earn his first win. Knoll worked five innings and allowed one run on seven hits with two strikeouts. Jacob Smith tossed three scoreless innings of relief while Mitch White worked the ninth to finish the game.

The first home series of the year concludes at 11 a.m. Wednesday. The Boomers will send Aaron Glickstein (0-0, 5.40) to the mound against Jhon Vargas (1-0, 7.94), aiming for the sweep of the ValleyCats.