The Five O's defeated the West Bend Benders 17-5 for their third Tri County win of the year but the story of the night was Steve Rhoads who on his 40th birthday turned in a 227 pitch complete game "gem" on the mound. The birthday boy showed obvious signs of heavy laboring as early as the 4th inning (which included a 25 minute light delay) but battled through it and kept earning one-inning contracts to stay in the game. His personal catcher, Josh Bouche, had this to say about the performance, "I just wanted him to give up a run so we could get out of our contract, but he refused to let that happen." Perhaps the closest West Bend came to breaking the contract was in the bottom of the 6th when Rhoads walked the 8 and 9 hitters to lead off the inning. After a wild pitch put runners at 2nd and 3rd with nobody out and the lead off hitter up, the contract was as good as gone. However a fly ball to center had the runner try and tag up but a phenomenal deek by catcher Josh Bouche stood the runner up at home and prevented a run. In the end, Steve got the complete game win going nine innings allowing five runs on 10 hits while walking six, striking out 7 and losing 12 pounds. At the plate Oconomowoc was led by Josh Bouche and Derek Nelson who led the 14 hit attack with three hits each.
The win puts Oconomowoc at 3-3 in thr Tri County Night League and 11-5 overall. They travel to Juneau on Friday night for another Tri County matchup against Neosho before returning to LOL action on Sunday with a home game against Lannon at 1:00 pm. Lannon beat Oconomowoc 6-5 earlier this year in their first LOL matchup.
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