Chicago, Ill.-July 8- An action packed game including a home run, a cycle, and an inside the park grand slam led to a three game losing streak.

The MCL Minutemen (4-14) dropped their third straight loss tonight against the Chicago American Giants (10-8) in a 13-7 affair.

In the bottom of the second inning, Brennan Brogni (Southeastern Illinois/ Flagstaff, Ariz.) walked, followed by a single out to left field from Jorge Santos (South Suburban/ Homewood, Ill.). Devin Smith (Prairie State/ Mokena, Ill.) walked after that. Doug Loden (Joliet JC/ St. John Indiana) rifled one into the right field wall, scoring everybody including himself for an in the park grand slam to put the Minutemen within two runs. Later on in the seventh inning, Gino Gazzillo (Joliet JC/ Homewood, Ill.) hits a sacrifice fly to score Jason Daniels (Waubonsee/ Hammond, Ind.). With Loden on third, Brogni hit a triple to bring in the seventh run of the game. The American Giants would score two more runs in the eighth inning to put them up six runs.

Manager Deandre Gilmore thought of this as a competitive performance for the Minutemen.

“Not too bad. It was a good competitive game. Not too bad at all,” Gilmore said.

The Minutemen were locked in mentally throughout the game. They were on the verge of a comeback, originally down seven runs to start the game, then clawing back to get within two runs. Gilmore talked about the atmosphere in the dugout during the game.

“It was good energy. Nobody likes losing, so when you can start coming back and get back on comeback road, the energy is a lot different,” Gilmore said.

Dennis Perl (Roosevelt/ Homewood, Ill.) said everybody was locked in and focused on the game and what was going on when he was asked on the broadcast. He said everybody was on the same page and it was good to see the team so competitive and bought in..

The Minutemen will travel to Irving Park tomorrow to take on the Southland Vikings for the second time this season at 5:05 pm. 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.