O’Fallon, MO – For the second straight night it was ugly, but winning ugly is much better than losing pretty. The River City Rascals took game two of their series against the Washington Wild Things 8-7 thanks to five errors by the visitors.

The fifth error proved to be the most costly as shortstop Rene Quintana fired wide of the bag at first on a groundball, allowing the winning run to score in the bottom of the ninth.

“We just can’t do this the easy way can we?” Rascals Manager Toby Rumfield asked after the game. “But a win’s a win and good teams find a way to win and that’s what we did tonight. We had a lot of opportunities earlier in the game and we caught a break.”

River City stranded the potential game winning run at third base with nobody out in the bottom of the eighth inning. But two groundouts and a strikeout got the Wild Things out of the jam.

Bobby Mosby got the Rascals going with his third homerun of the season in the bottom of the first to give River City a 3-0 lead.

The Rascals added another run in support of starting pitcher Jonathan Miller in the bottom of the second inning after Miller allowed two in the top half of the frame. Andrew Sweet scored when pitcher Kyle Dempsey threw wide of third on a bunt back to him, making it 4-2. Entering tonight, Miller received just three runs of support all season in three previous starts.

Two more came in for the Rascals in the third inning thanks to Raniere’s double with the bases loaded. Sweet was gunned down at home trying to score all the way from first for the final out of the inning.

Down 6-2 Washington began the comeback. Matt Sutton homered with one out in the fourth off Miller. One more came home in the sixth inning when Robbie Knapp doubled off the right-hander. Knapp was plated on another Sutton RBI, this time a single to make it 6-4. Miller then left in the sixth with the bases loaded and nobody out for lefty Adam Tollefson. Tollefson got two ground balls and a strikeout to preserve the lead.

Washington made it a one run game in the seventh when Knapp drove in Quintana.

Randy Rosa then gave the Rascals a little bit of breathing room in the seventh inning when he hit a solo homerun, his first of the season, off Alan Stidfole.

The Rascals would need the extra run as the Wild Things rallied for two unearned runs in the top of the eighth inning to tie the game. Adam Heffron scored on a bases loaded balk by closer Mike Benacka. Benacka then walked the next batter to reload the bases with two outs. Nathan Messner had two strikes on him when he tied the game with a shot to left, but thanks to Jeff Miller’s strike to home, Quintana was thrown out and the game was tied at seven. Phil Laurent had an assist earlier in the game when he nailed Jeff Beacham at the plate trying to tag.

That set the stage for the ninth when the Wild Things loaded the bases on Mosby’s fourth hit of the night, a single to left, a walk to Jeff Miller and a hit-by-pitch to defensive replacement Greg Phelps. That is when Raniere provided the groundball which was thrown away for the game winner.

Benacka (2-0) picked up the win for the Rascals going 1.1 innings without allowing a run. Both runs in the eighth were charged to Brian Logan. Corey Bachman (1-1) suffered the loss tossing two innings.

The Rascals (11-6) are still tied with the Evansville Otters for first in the Frontier League West after the Otters win over the Chillicothe Paints. River City improved to 10-1 at home and 8-2 in one run ballgames. Washington (6-10) dropped to 5.5 games back in the East with the loss. The two will be back at it Sunday night at 6:05 p.m. as the Rascals go for the sweep on a U.S. Cellular Family Day at T.R. Hughes Ballpark. Kids will be able to receive their favorite Rascal players autographs down on the field following the game.