CornBelter’s first-half hopes vanish as second-half opens 0-2

Author: Leo Romano | @romano.sports

The CornBelters didn’t have much to smile about last week. A first-half playoff berth slipped through their fingers in Thursday’s 15-7 loss to Thrillville, and the second half got off to an equally rocky start with a pair of losses in a doubleheader against the O’fallon Hoots. 

Heading into the week, Normal knew they needed to rattle off four consecutive victories to end the first half of the season. Things looked promising after Tuesday’s 4-3 win in Decatur against the Bean Ballers. Mason Orton went seven scoreless innings before giving up his first and only run in the 8th, finishing after 7.2 innings in which he allowed three hits while striking out four and walking two. Despite Olson’s impressive performance, the Belters had to rally down 3-2 in the top of the ninth, and it was Charlie Vercruysse’s go-ahead 2-RBI single that scored Coty and Baratta that won Normal the game. 

Wednesday’s win against Thrillville in Normal was anything but normal. In fact, both teams woke up on Thursday thinking that they would resume the game that was delayed due to inclement weather. Both teams agreed it was the right thing to do after Jerrius Atkinson’s 2-run shot in the top half of the 6th inning gave the Thrillbillies a 3-2 lead before the weather took a turn for the worse. But on Thursday morning, the league commissioner decided to revert back to the score after 5 innings, resulting in a CornBelters 2-1 win. Safe to say, the Thrillbillies manager was quite upset. 

As happy as he was to get the win, CornBelters manager Billy DeBois was also disappointed in the decision. Thursday’s game was originally scheduled for 11 am but with the decision from the night prior, that start was delayed to 1 pm so he told his star pitcher Brodie Farrell, who was set to start that one, to take his time in getting to the field. The miscommunication from the league kept him out of the game because Thursday’s start time moved back back up to its original 11 am first pitch. Instead, Will O’Gorman took the start but unfortunately didn’t last long after giving up four earned runs on five hits. 

Despite the sluggish start, the game was still in reach for the ’Belters heading into the top of ninth down 8-7. After a single, a couple walks, and a Peyton Kight grand slam, the game was officially out of reach and the CornBelters were handed a devastating 15-7 loss that officially eliminated Normal from the playoffs. 

As it turns out, if the Belters would have won that game (or any other game they lost for that matter), the ’’Belters would be playoff bound. Everything else went their way last week; the Quincy Doggy Paddlers beat the LumberKings of Clinton twice and lost to the Pistol Shrimp on Friday. Clinton also lost their Friday game to the Cape Catfish as Normal stayed at home due to bad weather up in Burlington, Iowa. What a brutal end to the first half for the Belters. 

And the start to the second half of the season wasn’t much kinder. The CornBelters dropped both games of a Safari Night doubleheader to the red-hot O’Fallon Hoots, who have now won 10 straight games. Between the two games, Normal managed just two runs and five hits while O’Fallon piled up 20 runs on 21 hits, handing the Belters an 0-2 start to the second half.

In Game 1, the Hoots broke things open with four consecutive hits off of starter Tucker King, who gave up six runs on 11 hits across 5 innings of work. After going down 6-0, Charlie Vercruysse broke open the scoring for the CornBelters with an RBI single and Ben Voegele’s triple to center made it a 6-2 ballgame in the fifth but it wasn’t nearly enough. 

The nightcap followed a similar script, as O’Fallon jumped out early to a 2-0 lead after four before scoring six more in the 5th and in the 7th, highlighted by O’Fallon’s Nick Bonczkowski’s grand slam in the 5th that made it 8-0. They would cruise on to a dominant 14-0 victory behind another balanced pitching performance. Gavin Michaels and Adison Worthman were the only two hits for the Belters. 

After watching a first-half playoff berth slip away by the slimmest of margins, the CornBelters have little time to dwell on it. The Prospect League’s second-half format offers every team a fresh start, meaning Normal can still punch its ticket to the postseason by winning the division over the next five weeks. The first step, however, is putting one of the toughest nights of the summer behind them.

Later this afternoon, the CornBelters head to Quincy to take on the first-half Northwest Division champion Doggy Paddlers, looking to pick up their first win of the second half. First pitch is scheduled for 5:00 p.m. CDT.

Fans can tune in to the CornBelters’ YouTube page, where Leo Romano (Notre Dame, Class of 2027) and Devin Witson (LSU, Class of 2027) will have the call beginning with pregame coverage at 4:50 p.m.