Published: May 15, 2008 12:00 am      

Beach Bums split exhibitions

Team prepares for home opener on May 21

GARY, Ind. -- Facing two league champions, the Traverse City Beach Bums came away with one win.

Traverse City edged Windy City 3-2 to finish with a split of its two exhibition games in Gary, Ind. on Tuesday. The Bums opened the twinbill with a 6-4 loss to the Gary Railcats, champions of the Northern League.

Windy City scored twice in the first inning against TC starter David Nathanson in the second game. But after getting three hits in the first, Windy City was limited to three hits the rest of the way.

Traverse City picked up a run in the bottom half of the opening inning on a RBI fielder's choice by Patrick Perry. That scored Mike Goetz, who lead off with a single, took second on a single by Steve Young and advanced to third on a fielder's choice off the bat of Jake Whitesides.

The Bums tied the game at 2-2 in the bottom of the sixth inning as Young scored on a wild pitch. Whitesides drove in the winning run with a single up the middle in the bottom of the eighth inning.

The late run made Jared Locke, the fifth of six hurlers used in the contest, the winning pitcher. Brett Bostelman worked a 1-2-3 ninth inning for the save.

Traverse City finished with nine hits in the contest. Young had three hits while Goetz added two.

The first inning was not kind to the Beach Bums in their first exhibition game.

Gary turned five hits into four runs against Bums' starter Ryan Gehring.

Traverse City battled back to tie the game with single runs in the fifth and seventh innings and two in the sixth.

Young got TC on the board with a RBI single to center while Matt Imwalle drove in both runs in the sixth with a two-run double to left center. TC's run in the seventh came without a hit as James Conrad came around to score on a wild pitch.

The Railcats responded, through, with two in the bottom half of the seventh on a bases-loaded walk to Yuki Matsumoto and a double play.

Traverse City finished with nine hits in the game, two each by Brett Roblin, Imwalle and Mike Epping.

Tuesday's doubleheader is the only exhibition games the Beach Bums will play. Traverse City opens its Frontier League season on May 21 when it hosts the Midwest Sliders for the first of three games at Wuerfel Park.