SCHAUMBURG, Ill. — The Schaumburg Boomers found themselves in an early hole, trailing by five before taking a swing Thursday and fell to the Southern Illinois Miners 9-1 on the last regular season home game of 2012 at Boomers Stadium.

The Miners (54-38) dealt a blow to the Boomers (53-40) playoff hopes after racing out to an early lead and rallying behind starter Daniel Calhoun. The Miners righty improved to 7-4 on the season with a miniscule 2.52 ERA as he held the Boomers to six hits with five strikeouts over his seven innings of work. Jake Kaase paced the Miners attack with a 4-5 performance including his 12th homer of the season in the second.

Despite a total of nine hits off the Miners pitching staff, the only run for the Boomers crossed the plate when Steve McQuail doubled home Chad Mozingo in the fourth. Mozingo and Nate Baumann each contributed a pair of hits for Schaumburg in a losing effort. Alex Rivers took the loss for the Boomers to fall to 4-4 on the season after allowing six earned runs on ten hits in seven innings. To the Schaumburg starter’s credit, Rivers kept the Miners off the board over his final five innings but the Boomers were unable to chip away against Calhoun.

Heading into the last series of the Frontier League Regular Season, the Boomers sit a game out of the final playoff spot looking up at Florence and Southern Illinois in the Wild Card and two games behind the Gateway Grizzlies in the West Division standings. Schaumburg heads to Pennsylvania to take on the Washington Wild Things for three games, and the Boomers will need some help if they are to make the playoffs in their Inaugural season.

PECKS

• A crowd of 4,269 was on hand for Thursday’s game, the fifth largest of the season
• Schaumburg finished with an impressive 34-17 record at Boomers Stadium in 2012

It truly will come down to the wire in the Frontier League so make sure to secure your favorite seat for the playoffs NOW!: online at www.boomersbaseball.com, over the phone at 847.461.3695 or in person at the Boomers Box Office located at Boomers Stadium, 1999 Springinsguth Road, Schaumburg IL, 60193.