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No Runs, And Very Few Hits
Through seven innings the scoreboard told the tale...of good pitching and teams using wood bats for the first time this season.
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06/12/09 - Sonny Fulks/1570wptw.com
In a prelude game to this weekend’s Veterans Tournament, Troy Post 43 beat the BB Rooners club out of the Warren, Ohio area, 2-1 Thursday night at Duke Park.
And, collectively the two teams proved that two age-old axioms about the game of baseball still hold true.
One, good pitching will always beat good hitting.
And two, you do not put the winning run on base via the intentional walk with the home team at bat in the bottom of the 10th. It almost always comes back to haunt you.
To elaborate, the pitching by the two teams was, in a word, superb. Troy used six pitchers…Josh Smiley, Drew Hargrove, Tray Sanderson, Wes Hawk, Brandon Compton and Bryan Daniel…to limit the Rooners to just 1 run and two hits.
For their part, the Rooners held Troy to just two hits through the first nine innings, and kept Post 43 off the board until the “fateful” bottom of the 10th inning.
The 10th proved fateful because the Rooner scored on a walk to center fielder Mike Floravit, who advanced to second on a ground out, and then stole third on a controversial call by base umpire Brad Zirkle…one that for all the world looked like the throw from catcher Taylor Messinger had actually carried third baseman Joe Engle into the path of Floravit with the ball for an outl.
One hitter later, slick fielding shortstop Casey Roch, who put on a defensive clinic throughout the night, steered a single into right field to score Floravit with the go-ahead run. And as Troy left the field to hit in the bottom of the inning, another twist. Post 43’s Erik Lamka was ejected for carrying on the issue of the stolen base with Zirkle.
In the bottom of the inning…more fate. Troy leadoff hitter Alex Marcano lifted a flyball into center field where Foravit lost it in the lights and allowed it to fall. Marcano ended up at second with a leadoff double. After second baseman Ryan Pearson popped up for the first out, Rooners coach Rod Simmer chose to walk Troy shortstop Tyler Wright intentionally, which did set up the double play…but it also broke rank with traditional thinking that you never, ever, put the winning run on base with an intentional walk.
All the teams playing in this weekend’s tournament are using wooden bats, and without a doubt that was a factor in the two teams’ struggle to get the ball into the outfield for the first nine innings, including Post 43 third baseman Joe Engle, who came to the plate after the intentional pass to Wright. He hit the second pitch he saw from reliever Scott Robinson to the warning track in left center, the hardest hit ball of the night. It split the outfielders, and by the time the ball could be returned to the infield Marcano had scored the tying run from second and Wright had streaked all the way from first with the winning run.
“There’s no question that the wood bats make a difference,” said Engle afterwards. “I really hit it good, and if I’d been using an aluminum bat it would have gone halfway up that tree behind the fence. He threw a fastball that was right there…knee high and out over the center of plate.”
It was a good time to hit one, and to hit it hard. It also took a step in proving what Frosty Brown has felt about his team since the first week of the season…that it gets it and knows how to win, even when they don’t score 13 runs and get 17 hits as they did the night before against Piqua.
“Our pitching was really good tonight,” smiled Frosty. “You know, that’s the second time that we’ve divided up the game like that with six pitchers and both times they all came in and got it done. Everyone’s filling their role right now.”
For the night, the six Troy pitchers struck out ten and walked but three. The last in the succession, lefthander Bryan Daniel, pitched the final three innings to earn the win.
It was great baseball, the way great baseball is meant to be played…pitching, dependable play-making, and timely hitting at the end. And on the topic of play-making, if you'd like to see some leather you have to get to Duke Park this weekend and see Rooners’ shortstop Casey Roch. The play that he made on Ryan Pearson’s ground ball to end the seventh inning would have made any ESPN highlight reel.
“If the whole weekend’s this good we’re going to have to charge people to get in,” laughed Brown, savoring Post 43’s 12th win of the season. “Were they trying to set up the double play by putting the winning run on base? I guess so, but every time you do that it seems to come back to bite you.
“We knew they’d be a good club and the wood bats were a difference in the game. But tonight showed that two teams this good can find a way to win, regardless of what kind of bat you use.
Tournament play begins Friday morning at 9 am at Duke Park and continues through Sunday afternoon. Plenty of good seats…the ones you bring in the back of your car…are still available.
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