Saturday, July 21, 2007

Bomber bats silenced by Spikes

STATEN ISLAND, NY- The Baby Bomber bats were cooled off by State College as three pitchers held them to just one run on four hits as Staten Island (17-14) dropped the second game of the series 7-1 before 4,917 at Richmond County Bank Ballpark Saturday night.

The loss dropped the Bombers back to five and a half behind first place Brooklyn, who snapped a two-game skid with an 11-2 win over Tri-City to pickup a game in the standings.

Despite a solid effort from losing starter Zach McAllister (2-2), the Bombers couldn't provide enough support to take the righty off the hook. He got off to a rough start by allowing the first four Spikes to reach base. After loading them up on a walk, he gave up an RBI single to Andrew Walker for the game's first run.

But facing serious trouble, McAllister pitched his way out of it by striking out the next two batters and then got Erik Huber to bounce out to second baseman Damon Sublett.

Staten Island would threaten in the bottom half by putting runners on the corners with one out but Duke Welker (1-1) induced a tailor made 4-6-3 double play from S.I. third baseman Braedyn Pruitt to get out of it. It summed up the night as the Bombers left 10 runners on.

Consecutive two out hits by Smelin Perez (double) and Keanon Simon (RBI single) in the fifth increased State College's lead to 2-0.

The Bombers responded quickly in the bottom of the frame to slice it back to one. After shortstop Luis Nunez singled and stole second, designated hitter Chris Raber drove him in with a runscoring single to left. But that was all they could muster as Austin Krum bounced into a fielder's choice and Dave Williams followed by striking out swinging.

Staten Island had one chance to tie it up in the seventh off State College reliever Michael Felix. After Felix fanned the first two batters, he issued back-to-back walks to Nunez and pinch hitter Isaiah Howes to get the crowd's hope up. But pinch hitter Matt Morris harmlessly popped out to short which ended the inning.

The Spikes finally put the contest away by batting around for a five-run eighth. S.I. reliever Jason Kiley was done in partially by the defense. After allowing a run to come in on a Justin Ryler RBI double to left center, he gave up a single to Andrew Walker which put runners on the corners with nobody out. That's when it got ugly.

First, catcher's interference by Jose Gil allowed Daniel Rios to reach base safely which loaded the bases. Trailing by two with the infield in, Kiley got Matt Cavagnaro to ground to short but Nunez' throw was dropped by Gil going all the way to the backstop allowing two runs to score which suddenly made it 5-1.

Kyle Hollander replaced Kiley and permitted two more runs on a 4-6-3 twin killing and an RBI single by Austin McClune to make the deficit six. It could've been worse two batters later when Simon laced the third straight hit off the reliever but centerfielder Justin Snyder threw out McClune at home to mercifully end the inning.

State College reliever Brandon Williams worked around a two out ninth inning walk by getting Howes to line out to right which ended it.


Notes: Despite taking the loss, McAllister went the first six giving up two earned runs on four hits while walking two and fanning five. ... In three innings of work, relievers Kiley and Hollander allowed five runs (2 ER) on seven hits. ... Simon finished with a game high four hits in five plate appearances for State College while driving in and scoring a run. ... Welker tossed six strong for the Spikes allowing just a run on three hits while walking one and striking out five to notch the win. ... The game was live webcast on the official Staten Island Yankee site siyanks.com by their team official scorer. ... SP Ryan Zink will go for the Bombers in the rubber game Sunday afternoon at 2 PM.

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