Chicago, Ill.- July 2- After losing eight straight games, a talley was added to the win column.

The MCL Minutemen (4-11) brought in their first win in 25 days against the Joliet Generals (10-6). The Minutemen got out to a fierce start, scoring three runs in the first inning. After that, the team answered most of the General scoring innings with runs of their own in the 8-5 win.

In the first, The Minutemen faced five walks to start the inning. Jason Daniels (Waubonsee, Hammond, Ind.) and Doug Loden (Joliet JC/ St. John, Ind.) were able to score off of the walks. In the end of the inning, Gino Gazzillo (Joliet JC/ Chicago, Ill.) grounded a single into the shortstop, allowing Zack Beatty (McBook CC/ Maple Park, Ill.) to score. At the end of the third quarter, Gavin Callaghan (Joliet JC/ Tinley Park, Ill.) grounded a ball to shortstop reaching on an error allowing Gazzillo to score the teams fourth run of the game. In the bottom of the fourth, Devin Smith (Prairie State/ Mokena, Ill.) popped a single into right field, allowing Daniels and Loden to score runs five and six for the Minutemen. The last two runs were scored in the bottom of the fifth. Gazzillo scored the first one off of Loden’s single, and then Alphonzo Franks (Southern Illinois/ Munster, Ind.) scored off of a Beatty single the play after.

Manager Deandre Gilmore was very happy with the win tonight.

“Great game and great pitching. We were in a zone. When you’re in the zone, it makes for a nice, clean game,” Gilmore said. 

The pitching was also on for the Minutemen. Starter Dennis Perl (Roosevelt/ Homewood, Ill.) was awarded the win tonight. He has a lot of confidence in the Minutemen moving forward from this win.

“It feels great. Our team came out today and we did what had to be done,” Perl said, “We’re going on a winning streak. You heard it here first.”

The Minutemen came off of nine straight days of not playing due to time off and rainouts. Gilmore believes that this was a great thing for the team coming into tonight’s contest.

“It really just cleared our heads. These guys are coming off of their college season, and then you go right into the summer. Then you play back to back to back. When you get a long break like that, it clears your head and there’s no more pressure so you can go out there and play regular baseball,” Gilmore said.

The Minutemen will get the holiday weekend off, but will be matching up with Northwest Indiana Oilmen on Tuesday, July 6 at Prairie State College at 5:05 pm when they look to get on the win streak. 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.