Washington, PA – Making his first start of the season, Scott Fogelson pitched a gem, going 8.2 scoreless innings as the River City Rascals downed the Washington Wild Things 1-0 Saturday night.

Fogelson (2-1), a starter all of last season with the Kalamazoo Kings and Florence Freedom, had to wait his turn for the Rascals. He was cut during spring training and then signed back right before the first road trip to Rockford. The left-hander had gone 14 innings and allowed just two earned runs from the pen until getting the nod to the starting rotation. The wait was well worth it.

River City made the lefty sweat for his second win this season and first as a starter. The Rascals were held down through seven innings by Wild Thing starter Mike Schellinger. The right-hander allowed six hits and walked none in his seven scoreless frames.

Fogelson meanwhile was tested in the sixth inning as the bases became loaded after Nathan Messner dribbled a comebacker off Fogelson’s glove for an infield single. The next batter, Jacob Dempsey entered leading the league in extra base hits with 15, was retired as Fogelson got him to fly out to center field.

Matt Maredeo (0-1) came in for the Wild Things in the eighth with the score still at 0-0. River City got to the 6’5 righty in the ninth. Ironically, the Wild Thing walked the leadoff man Brad Hough, Hough then stole second for Jeff Miller. Miller would ground out to short for the first out of the inning. Bobby Mosby was 0-3 before coming to the plate in the ninth. Big Mo, lifted the first pitch he saw deep into right-center, too far for Drew Hoisington or Matt Sutton to reach, for an RBI single to plate Hough and making it 1-0.

Mosby was then lifted for a pinch runner when he appeared to be favoring his left leg rounding first.

Fogelson came out to start the ninth and retired the first batter he faced. Messner then came up and hit a towering fly ball to right that was misjudged by Phil Laurent and dropped for a costly two base error. Fogelson was left in to face Dempsey and got the slugger to ground out to second advancing Messner to third. One out away from the complete game shutout, Toby Rumfield went and got his closer Mike Benacka.

Benacka came in with 24 strikeouts in 12.2 innings and one save away from the breaking a tie with Pat Evers for the Rascals franchise save record. The right-hander, passed Evers just like one would figured, by strikeout, sitting down Robbie Knapp for his twenty-fifth career save and fifth of the season.

The Rascals (13-10) will play game three of the series in Washington Sunday night at 6:35 p.m. EST. Mike Castrignano (1-1, 4.95 ERA) will make his fifth start of the season. The Rascals are now 2-6 on the road with both wins being 1-0 contests. Catch the Rascals on the road this season by tuning into Josh Anderson on FM 104.5 KSLQ.