Chicago, Ill.- July 23- Five innings allowed in the first inning was a lot to overcome with a short handed bullpen in an attempt to extend the win streak.

The MCL Minutemen (7-18) fell short to the Northwest Indiana Oilmen (18-7) 8-4 after going down big on the scoreboard early. The Minutemen put up a great effort to come back and cut the lead, but there wasn’t enough time in the seven inning affair.

After allowing five runs in the top of the first, the Minutemen responded with two of their own in the bottom half of the inning. Justin Keresets (Northwood/ Loves Park, Ill.) hit a single into right field scoring  Giovanni Lopez (Benedictine Mesa/ St. John, Ind.) and Ryan Nelson (Eastern Kentucky/ Aurora, Ill.). After three scoreless innings from both sides, the Minutemen broke the silence when Gino Gazzillo (Joliet JC/ Chicago, Ill.) off of a smack into right field from Isaac Rivera (Prairie State College/ Oak Forest, Ill.) They grabbed one more in the sixth inning after Doug Loden (Joliet JC/ St. John, Ind.) stole third base, then came home on an error in the field.

Manager Deandre Gilmore liked the way the team played, but believes a couple of things happened that were uncontrollable.

“We had a little freak accident. Our starter got hurt right before the game, so I had to put a reliever in there, and they jumped on us to score five. Five is really hard to come back from in a seven inning game,” Gilmore said.

The injured starter was Dennis Perl (Roosevelt/ Homewood, Ill.) Justin Supergan (Prairie State/ Valparaiso, Ind.) started, but pitched one inning. Ethen Otstott (Prairie State/ Oak Forest, Ill.) came in relief in the second inning and went for the rest of the game. He threw four strikeouts, allowed two earned runs and six hits in six innings of work. Gilmore was impressed with Otstott’s performance.

“Ethen is always going to be like that. He’s going to be in the zone all the time and throw his secondary pitches for strikes, and make those guys put the ball in play,” Gilmore said.

The team was locked in throughout the game. They made it a competitive contest until the very end. Gavin Callaghan (Joliet JC/ Tinley Park, Ill.) and the team all wanted to win this game.

“It was good. We were all in the dugout, and we were all into the game. We wanted to win,” Callaghan said.

The Minutemen will look to grab a win in their rebound game against the Crestwood Panthers 1:05 pm at Playfield Park.  Follow @MclMinutemen on Twitter to keep up with all the latest Minutemen news and updates, and follow @MCLMinutemen on Facebook to catch the live streams of every game.