The chances for the Southern Illinois Miners to score runs in Saturday's second game of the Frontier League divisional playoffs were there in every inning. The chance to keep Windy City off the board in every inning was there, too.

But the Miners either left runners on base or had them erased in each of the first five innings and only mustered three hits for the game -- the first was nearly caught and the last two came in the ninth inning -- and three of their four errors led to six of Windy City's runs in a 7-2 loss that puts the ThunderBolts' one win away from the chance of defending their Frontier League championship.

The Miners hope to get back in the series as the scene shifts from the Chicago suburbs to Rent One Park for Monday's third game at 7:05 p.m. With a win, they'll play Tuesday in Marion with a chance to force a fifth game back in Crestwood next Thursday.

"We'll have to look at the fact that it's been done before and we're good enough to do it," Miners manager Mike Pinto said. "But we're going to have to get our heads out of an orifice that it's in right now and have some quality at-bats and square some balls up. We're not doing that right now."

All of the Miners' baserunners in the first four innings came via walks from an otherwise brilliant Isaac Hess. Twice it was speedy outfielder Andre Miller who drew the free passes, but he was caught stealing twice. Joey Metropoulos drew a walk in the fourth but was wiped out as Tim Dorn hit into a double play, the same fate for Brandon Jones after blooping the only hit against Hess in the next frame as Brendan Akashian skipped into a twin killing.

At that point, Windy City already had a 1-0 lead thanks to Michael Sullivan's single in the third inning that chased around Scott Billak from second base after Gilberto Mejia had drawn a walk. It would be the only earned run against Miners righthander Brett Scarpetta, although more unearned runs followed.

After Scarpetta retired the first two batters of the fifth, Mejia hit a fly ball to center field that Miller dove for and missed, giving the speedy midseason all-star a standup triple. Scarpetta appeared to escape the frame, though, as Sullivan hit a soft grounder toward Dorn at first base, but the ball went through his legs as Mejia scampered home. 

Michael Coles then caught third baseman Jones playing too far back and bunted for a single to set up a line drive, two-run double down the right field line by Phil Hawke, the Frontier League's most valuable player. Scarpetta got Wes Long to fly out to end the rally, but the Miners trailed 4-0.

The Miners scratched the scoreboard for two runs in the sixth, but both tallies should legally be qualified as gifts. After getting Eric Suttle to ground out and seeing right fielder Billak make a highlight-reel running catch in foul territory to rob Mike Scanzano of an at-bat, Hess issued four straight walks to Miller, Tony Roth, Metropoulos and Dorn to force in a run.

Hess was removed for Jason Lowey to face Jones, who beat out a throw to first after third baseman Josh Horn bobbled his grounder, allowing an unearned run to cross the plate and make it 4-2. Lowey struck out Akashian with the bases loaded to thwart the comeback attempt.

Left fielder Manny Paula dropped a fly ball to allow another ThunderBolts run in the sixth. In the next inning, Hawke followed a Coles single with a base hit to center field, but Miller's throw attempting to get Coles out at third base went into the Windy City dugout. Hawke later scored on a wild pitch from Armando Carrasco to give the home team a 7-2 lead.

Pinto ruled out jitters as a cause for the errors.

"I don't think so," he said. "Just some ill-advised plays and some bad decisions."

The Miners went down in order for the only time in the eighth -- with Roth, Metropoulos and Dorn doing the honors -- and got their only solid hits of the night in the ninth when Paula and Suttle both hit ringing gappers but were stranded on the corners as pinch-hitter Randy Rosa struck out to end the game.

"We're not hitting," Akashian said. "We're trying to do too much and getting out of our approach. Their guys pitch well but we just have to re-focus. We'll be all right."

Although the loss was pinned on Scarpetta, he certainly did his part -- maybe more than anyone -- to keep the Miners in the game.

"I thought Scarpetta did a good job today," Pinto said. "One earned run. We make the play at first base, that's a different inning. Drop a ball in left field and another run scores. I think it's been that when they make a mistake, we don't capitalize. When we make a mistake, they do."

Scarpetta took no consolation in a solid outing.

"I felt good, but it's a team game," Scarpetta said. "We needed a team win and we didn't get it."

Pinto is looking for his offense to pull the Miners back into the series once it resumes Monday night.

"The story for the last two days comes down to, we haven't gotten any hits," Pinto said. "The best two tonight were the last two in the ninth inning. You can't wait until the ninth inning to hit. You have to do something earlier. We've had opportunities. They've walked us and put guys on, they've made errors, but the story is they've gotten two-out hits and we haven't."

The Miners will send all-star righthander Chris Little to the mound in the third game.

"I certainly like having Chris on the mound," Pinto said. "That's why I put him there. If we were ahead two, he's the guy I would want to close it out. And if we're behind two, he's certainly the guy I'm looking to keep us in it."