Peoria’s victory Saturday made Joe Kruzel the winningest manager in Chiefs history. (Photo by Craig Wieczorkiewicz/The Midwest League Traveler)
The Peoria Chiefs split their doubleheader against the Quad Cities River Bandits on Saturday, but their Game 1 victory is all manager Joe Kruzel needed to become the club’s all-time winningest manager.
Peoria’s 4-3 win was No. 211 for the Chiefs manager, who is in his third season at the team’s helm. Kruzel now has one more Chiefs win than Joe Cunningham III, who managed Peoria in 1997, 2003 and 2004. (Cunningham also managed two other Midwest League squads — Quad Cities in 2005 and the Madison Hatters in 1994.)
Quad Cities won the second game of the doubleheader 8-3.
Dragons smoke Cubs, 13-0
The Dayton Dragons scored eight runs in the 1st inning and later tallied five more as they cruised to an easy 13-0 win over the South Bend Cubs, who managed only four hits in the game.
The Dragons collected 16 hits and walked three times. The Cubs pitching staff threw five wild pitches and hit one batter, and second baseman Carlos Sepulveda committed a throwing error.
All nine players in Dayton’s starting lineup had at least one hit, as did pinch-hitter Zach Shields. Nick Senzel hit three doubles and drove in two runs. Josciel Veras hit a three-run homer in the 1st inning and drove in a fourth run on a single in the 5th.
