By Stephanie Storm
Beacon Journal sports writer
POSTED: 11:06 p.m. EDT, Sep 12, 2009
Mother Nature only delayed the inevitable when an all-day rain postponed the Eastern League Southern Division Series on Friday night in Reading, Pa.
Once the Aeros and Reading Phillies got back to action Saturday with the third game of the best-of-five series, the visitors continued their dominance from the previous two games.
The Aeros won their 11th consecutive victory Saturday night at First Energy Stadium by a score of 9-3, sweeping the Phillies and adding the post-season division crown (their fifth consecutive) to the one they already captured in the regular season.
The Aeros did a majority of their scoring early, sparked by Beau Mills' first-inning two-run homer off major-league rehabber Clay Condrey.
The Aeros offense continued to beat up on scheduled starter Mike Cisco, as Josh Rodriguez and Mills each had RBI hits to push Akron's lead to 4-0 in the third. A four-run fourth that featured two Reading errors and Jerad Head's eighth RBI of the series, gave Akron a 7-0 edge.
Kevin Mahar's RBI-groundout and a Neil Sellers' RBI single broke up the shutout bid in the fourth, as Reading cut the deficit to five runs.
But that was as close as the Phillies would get, as the Aeros' Rodriguez pushed across a two-run single in the eighth to expand Akron's lead to seven runs, all but negating Reading's final run on a Michael Taylor single.
Meanwhile, Aeros starter Eric Berger struck out a season-high eight batters in five innings to earn the win, allowing two runs (one earned) and four hits.
The Aeros return to Akron to wait for the winner of the Northern Division Series.
Stephanie Storm can be reached at sstorm@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Indians and Aeros blog at http://www.ohio.com/tribematters.
