Chicago, Ill.- July 27- The same stage was set as the night before. The same teams played at the same field at the same time, giving both teams a chance to win the three game series.

The MCL Minutemen (8-20) fell to the Crestwood Panthers (17-16) 17-6 in a run-heavy six inning matchup. This game decided who would go up in the three straight game series between the two squads. The Panthers won the tie breaker 2-1, 

The Minutemen drove in many runs today, but couldn’t outscore the Panthers through six. They drew blood first in the second inning when Armani Sanchez (Undecided/ St. John, Ind.) grounded into left field to score Devin Smith (Prairie State/ Mokena, Ill.) for the first run of the game. The Minutemen were able to score two in the fifth with the bases loaded. Smith grabbed a base hit single to score Gabe Cortez (Prairie State/ Tinley Park, Ill.). Gino Gazzillo (Joliet JC/ Chicago, Ill.) walked to score Zack Beatty (McBook CC/ Maple Park, Ill.) for the third run. The Minutemen grabbed three more runs in the sixth inning. Beatty hit a deep double into center field to score Brennan Brogni (Illinois Springfield/ Flagstaff, Ariz.). Gazzillo then hit a single into center field, but Beatty and Smith were able to score off the error in center field to score the rest of the runs the Minutemen had. Manager Deandre Gilmore wasn’t happy with what went down tonight. 

“We need to be more competitive. It was a bad game overall with bad team play, and bad energy,” Gilmore said.

The Minutemen got two new pitchers on the mound in tonight’s loss. Adam Leonard and Austin Velasquez (Quincy/ Lansing, Ill.) got their first pitches. Leonard made his Minutemen debut, and Velasquez, who usually is behind the plate, got to pitch in relief.

The Minutemen will look to rebound tomorrow against the Southland Vikings at Dowling Park at 5:05 pm. The Minutemen will look to take the quick three game series with it all tied up. 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.