Tigers sloppy in loss
By P.J. Harmer
Staff Writer
ONEONTA _ There are nights when nothing seems to go right for a baseball team.
The Oneonta Tigers experienced that kind of night Wednesday.
Oneonta pitching combined for seven walks and the Tigers committed two errors as the Vermont Lake Monsters earned a 9-4 New York-Penn League victory in front of an announced crowd of 623 at Damaschke Field on Sid Levine bobblehead night.
"Ball four killed us," O-Tigers manager Howard Bushong said. "That's the bottom line. Ball four killed us. It gave us no chance. We came back and swung the bats really well, but if you can't throw strikes, that's going to happen. Then we didn't play defense late."
The O-Tigers (10-7), which lost the continuation of Tuesday's suspended game earlier Wednesday, 3-2, saw their Stedler Division lead shrink to 1 1/2 games over Vermont (10-9). Lowell (9-10), which beat Tri-City (6-11), is in third place.
Oneonta and Vermont finish a three-game set at 7:05 p.m. today. The O-Tigers then travel to Tri-City for a 7 p.m. start Friday and return to Damaschke at 7:05 p.m. Saturday before completing the four-game, home-and-home series with a doubleheader against the ValleyCats at 5 p.m. Sunday in Troy.
The Tigers are off Monday before heading to Auburn for three games.
Tigers third baseman Wade Gaynor, who finished 1-for-3 with a double and two RBIs, said today's game could set the tone for the weekend.
"Anytime you can come back (from a loss) the next day is huge," Gaynor said. "I don't think we are going to dwell on today that much. It's a long season. We're not done until September. We like where we're standing right now and we're confident going into the rest of the season."
The Tigers allowed a run in the top of the first Wednesday but responded quickly. Jamie Johnson and Michael Rockett had back-to-to back singles to put runners on first and second before Gaynor hit an RBI double to center that tied the score at 1 and moved Rockett to third. Rawley Bishop followed with a soft single to center, scoring Rockett and Bishop for a 3-1 lead.
Losing pitcher Gary Perinar (1-2) walked Adam Amar and Justin Bloxom before striking out J.R. Higley in the second. Each runner advanced on a passed ball charged to catcher Keith Hernandez, and Jack Walker walked to load the bases. Jay Sferra followed with a single to right, scoring Amar and re-loading the bases.
Perinar went to a full count on Jeffrey Kobernus before walking him and forcing in Bloxom to tie the score at 3.
"Again, ball four will take a lot of things out of you," Bushong said. "All the walks and stuff like that didn't keep us in the game very well. It didn't give us a chance to stay in the game."
Wade Kapteyn relieved Perinar, but Sean Nicol hit his first pitch up the middle for an RBI single and a 4-3 advantage. Nicol finished 3-for-3 with a double and two RBIs.
J.P. Ramirez then hit a two-run single to right and, after Daniel Killian struck out, Nicol scored on a wild pitch from Kapteyn to make it 7-3.
"That's something we've struggled with all year and it's starting to come around," Nicol said about Vermont taking advantage of walks. "The team chemistry is starting to come around."
Gaynor's sacrifice fly in the second pulled Oneonta to 7-4.
The Lake Monsters scored two more runs in the sixth, taking advantage of Jim Gulliver's two errors at shortstop. Sferra reached to start the inning when the ball bounced off Gulliver's glove. Sferra stole second and later scored on Nicol's double to left. Ramirez then hit a shot between Gulliver's legs, scoring Nicol to make it 9-4.
"Our pitching has done great all year and anytime we get a lead, we feel comfortable," Gaynor said. "But baseball is a funny game and guys have bad nights. Tonight we just didn't play well."
Lake Monsters 3, Tigers 2
Jack Walker doubled in the go-ahead run in the top of the 11th before the O-Tigers went down in order in the bottom of the inning as Vermont won a game that was suspended by rain Tuesday night and resumed Wednesday.
Adam Amar opened the 11th with a double to center field off Michael Torrealba (1-1). Justin Bloxom then bunted pinch-runner Jay Sferra to third before Walker doubled to center to give the Lake Monsters a 3-2 lead.
In the last of the 11th, Vermont reliever Clayton Dill struck out Carmelo Jaime and Christopher Sedon before getting Matthew Mansilla to ground out to third to end it.
The game resumed at the start of the sixth inning with teams tied at 1.
Vermont's Francisco Soriano drew a leadoff walk against Cory Hamilton, who took over for Oneonta's Tuesday starter, Adam Wilk. Soriano moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Dani Arias and scored when Brian Pruitt singled to right field.
John Murrian rallied the Tigers with a leadoff double to left in the ninth. Christopher Sedon then bunted to third for a single that put runners at the corners and chased Vermont reliever Johan Figuereo. Mansilla followed with a sacrifice fly to left off Evan Bronson to tie the score at 2.
Dill relieved Bronson and got out of the jam by inducing back-to-back flyouts by Luis Palacios and Jamie Johnson. Dill (2-1) threw 2 2/3 innings of hitless ball for the win.
Murrian finished 3-for-4 with an RBI to pace the Tigers, who received two hits from Johnson. Oneonta committed three errors _ two fielding by shortstop Jimmy Gulliver and one throwing by right fielder Michael Rockett.
Amar went 3-for-5 with two doubles and an RBI to lead Vermont.
The Daily Star, Oneonta, NY - otsego county news, delaware county news, oneonta news, oneonta sports - Tigers sloppy in loss