(From Owensboro)  The Owensboro Oilers won their home portion of a festive home-and-away Independence Holiday series. They topped the visiting Fulton Railroaders on Thursday night in shutout fashion by the final score of 5 to 0.
     The Oilers scored one run in the bottom of the 1st inning. Owensboro leadoff man Braxton Brinkley reached on an error. Two consecutive bunts followed and loaded the bases. Brinkley came in from third base on a RBI sacrifice fly by Jake Wilson. The Oilers added another run in the bottom of the 2nd inning. Cable Wright led off the home inning with a single, then stole second base. He was still there two outs later to be driven in when Brinkley delivered an RBI single. The game remained 2 to 0 in the home team's favor until Owensboro scored three runs in the bottom of the 6th inning. Leading off, Jake Krupar singled. Kyle Floyd reached on a sacrifice fielder's choice that did not result in an out.  Wright followed with a walk to load the bases. That situation set up 2 RBI single by Taylor Sears that scored Krupar and Floyd while Wright moved over to third base. Austin Bartle followed with a successful RBI squeeze bunt to bring in Wright. At the end of six complete innings the Oilers led by the score 5 to 0, which became the final.
     A tandem of three Owensboro pitchers scattered three Fulton hits and combined for nine strikeouts over nine innings of work. Newcomer Oilers starter Clint Chestnut went 4 innings. Winner Morgan Grisham was the pitcher of record when the game became official over the next 1.67 innings. Finally, Cameron Wallace notched a save by pitching 3.33 innings in relief of Grisham. Fulton starter Clay Chandler took the loss.