Whiting, Ind. – July 18, 2020 – A four-game winning streak ended with a thud for the Northwest Indiana Oilmen on Saturday night at Oil City Stadium.

The Oilmen pitching staff issued 12 walks and hit two batters, while the offense stranded 14 on base in an 11-2 defeat to the MCL Minutemen.

“It’s just another baseball game; you’re going to have nights like this over the course of a long season,” Oilmen manager Chris Cunningham said. “We’ve got to find a way to come back tomorrow with a little more energy and a little better execution. With runners in scoring position and less than two outs, we didn’t get the job done, and we didn’t throw many strikes. Our pitchers have been good all year, but they weren’t very good today. You just chalk it up to one of those games.”

Nick Anderson (Kankakee CC / Highland, Ind.) was a bright spot, collecting three of the team’s eight hits. Gabe Pulido (College of DuPage / Griffith) was on base in each of his first four plate appearances, including an RBI single in the second that tied the game at one. The Minutemen regained the lead with a third-inning tally before taking on three in the fourth and leading from that point forward. Michael Machnic (Webber International / Walkerton, Ind.) stroked a run-scoring single in the fifth for the second and final Oilmen run of the night.

Starting pitcher Tommy Windt (South Suburban / Orland Park, Ill.) took the defeat after allowing two runs on five hits in three innings on an uncharacteristically wobbly night of Oilmen pitching. Jacob Frencl (1-2) allowed two runs on six hits in five innings to get the win for the Minutemen (4-9), while former Oilmen pitcher Norman Standish hurled four scoreless innings of relief to nail down his first save.

The Oilmen (9-4) are now part of a three-way tie for first place in the Midwest Collegiate League standings with Southland and DuPage County entering Sunday’s action. Northwest Indiana will battle Joliet at 4:10 p.m. at Oil City Stadium with tickets available on NWIOilmen.com. Brandon Vickrey and Andrew Fish will have the call on the Oilmen Broadcasting Network, which is available via Facebook Live.