Chicago, Ill.- July 13- A duel of the pitchers made for a competitive and close knitted contest in a battle at the bottom of the standings.

The MCL Minutemen (5-15) dropped a close game to the Southland Vikings (10-15) 5-3 in a seven inning matchup. 

The Vikings elite pitching gave the Minutemen early offensive struggles, not allowing them to spark any kind of offense early on. Strikeout after strikeout made it feel like the game was over before it was really over. That is until the game reached the bottom of the fourth inning. Jorge Santos (South Suburban/ Homewood, Ill.) starting things out with a  grounder over to second base for a base hit. The batter after, Gabe Cortez (Prairie State/ Tinley Park, Ill.) walked. Gino Gazzillo (Joliet JC/ Steger, Ill.) poked one out to right field for a double to score Santos and Cortez. Later on, Nate Villagomez (Moraine Valley/ Burbank, Ill.) hit a sacrifice fly to score Gazzillo for the Minutemen’s third run of the game. The scoring drive ended there.

Manager Deandre Gilmore liked how the team played tonight.

“It was a good game. It was competitive all the way through. Every inning was just straight competitive baseball. Happy about that,” Gilmore said.

The Minutemen bullpen showcased good pitching tonight as well. Doug Loden (Joliet JC/ St. John, Ind.) and Nick Vitiritti (Carthage, Lansing, Ill.) were the men at the mound in tonight’s contest. Loden pitched five innings, earning three runs, allowing five base hits while striking out five batters on 97 pitches. Vitiritti came in relief and closed out the game. He let up no runs, three hits, and stuck out three batters on 31 pitches.

Loden received high praise from his manager after his second start.

“Doug’s a guy that always does great on the mound. He’s a dog. He’s got that bulldog in him. He’s going to come in and attack you, and try to make you beat him. That’s what he did,” GIlmore said. 

The Minutemen kept this one close and competitive, all that Gilmore can ask for. He isn’t worried about wins and losses right now. He wants the team to compete every time they step out onto the field, and the wins will follow.

The Minutemen will take on the Joliet Generals at Benedictine University tomorrow at 7:05 pm for the first time. 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.