Saturday night in his rematch with Chillicothe, Cline ditched the "almost" part of that statement.

Cline notched his seventh victory of the season in a five-hit shutout of the Paints as Slippery Rock easily won, 3-0.

The Sliders' ace fanned seven batters and allowed a runner to reach third base only once, when Chillicothe left the bases loaded in the sixth inning.

The last time Cline took on the Paints back on July 21 in Slippery Rock, he picked up his fifth win of the season as the Sliders won 6-2.

In that outing Cline scattered three hits over 61¼3 innings before the bullpen helped him out and finished the game.

Saturday he needed no help.

The Paints managed five hits - all of which were singles - and barely threatened to score.

The Sliders picked up a single run in the first inning when Casey Bowling singled, advanced to second on a walk and to third on a balk before scoring on a sacrifice fly.

Bowling added a one-out solo home run in the third inning.

Jason Curry topped off the scoring, hitting his fourth home run of the season to lead off the fifth inning.

Curry's solo shot closed the book on struggling Paints starter Brian Marshall.

Marshall (now 2-4 with an ERA of 6.07) lasted four innings, giving up all three runs on five hits with two walks and two strikeouts.

In his three starts in the month of August, Marshall has given up 14 earned runs and eight walks in just 81¼3 innings (an ERA of 15.13).

Brian McCullough closed out the game, scattering four hits over four scoreless innings of work.

The loss drops the Paints to 36-39 overall.

With Washington's 6-0 win over Florence Saturday night, Chillicothe falls another game further behind the Wild Things in the Frontier League's East Division standings.

Kalamazoo, which currently leads the pack in the chase for the FL's only Wild Card playoff spot, defeated Traverse City 4-2.

The Paints and Sliders finish up the two-game series with a 6:05 game today in western Pennsylvania.