Record crowd sees Schaumburg Boomers rally to beat Joliet

A franchise-record crowd of 8,132 witnessed the Schaumburg Boomers rally from down 7-0 to knock off the Joliet Slammers 9-7 on Friday night at Wintrust Field.

Joliet carried a 7-0 edge into the bottom of the fifth after notching a single run in the second and three in the fourth and fifth. The Boomers had managed just one hit but began the comeback with a five spot in the bottom of the inning. Kyle Fitzgerald singled with one away and scored the first run when Sam Kuchinski doubled.

Alec Craig walked and Michael Gould scored the second run with an RBI single. Christian Fedko lifted a sacrifice fly before Anthony Calarco obliterated his 20th homer of the year, a 2-run blast that brought the Boomers within 7-5. The 20 homers equal the single-season record, which was done twice by Steve McQuail.

Andrew Sojka throttled his 15th homer of the year leading off the sixth to bring the Boomers within a run. Fitzgerald notched a key steal to reach scoring position and with two outs Gould evened the game with a single to center. Banks Tolley scored the go-ahead run in the seventh with two outs, scoring newcomer Nick Podkul, who walked and stole second. Podkul added an insurance run in the eighth by drawing a bases-loaded walk moments after Calarco was intentionally walked to load the bags.