Thursday, September 13, 2007

Snappers find themselves in 2 game hole

Tyler Robertson
Thanks again to Joe for the Bowman!


Beloit 2 at West Michigan 3

W: D. Below (2-0, 2.63); L: T. Robertson (0-1, 0.77); SV: C. Fien (3)
HR: BEL: G. Olson (1).

E: Betsill (1, missed catch), Cates (5, fielding), Yersich (1, pickoff).

Jeramy Laster knocked a triple out to Chris Parmelee in the bottom of the 5th Wednesday to tie up the 2nd game of the Midwest League finals. Greg Yersich's throwing error on a pick-off attempt led to the game winning run.

No one probably feels worse about that Yersich right now, whose throw bounced after Laster's foot and went caromed out to left field. Yersich will be one of the catchers participating in the upcoming Fall Instructional League at the Lee County Sportsplex, which begins Wednesday, September 19. Several Snappers will be reporting to Fort Myers on Tuesday for the month long camp.

That doesn't give Beloit much time to win the Midwest League finals and with the team down 2, they'll need to play catch up for the first two games at Pohlman Field starting Thursday.

The Snappers had taken an early lead in the 2nd inning when Yersich drew a walk. Greg Olson then homered in a fly ball to left to give the Beloit squad 2.

The Whitecaps came back in the 2nd with Brennan Boesch doubling to right, progressed on a catching error by former Miracle Matt Betsill and then came home on a Santo De Leon force out.

Starter Tyler Robertson allowed 3 runs - only 1 earned - on six hits and 1 walk while strking out 9 in six inning to take the loss. The game was largely about the outstand performance of West Michigan's Duane Below on the mound.

The 21-year-old Michigan native allowed only 1 hit - Olson's yarder - and 2 walks while striking out 10 in 7 innings.

"I wasn't too frustrated after the homer, because [Olson] hit a good pitch, low and inside, and he got the bat on it and took it out," the Tiger prosect was quoted as saying in MILB.com wrap. The Miracle faithful will have a look at the 6'2" lefty as part of the Lakeland Flying Tigers pitching staff next season.

Much like Rob Delaney who came to the Miracle crediting his mustache for his success, Below says his facial hair has helped his pitching.

"In late July, I just wanted to switch things up [after two straight losses], so I grew a mustache and won my first start. I was going to shave, but the guys told me to go one more start and after I won the next game, I knew I couldn't shave it," he explained to MILB. "Here I am today with my [seventh] straight win since I grew it."

The Snappers are hoping that facial hair - and errors - will not be a part of the game Thursday when former Golden Gopher Cole Devries (9-5, 3.41 regular season) takes to the mound for game 3. The Witecaps will be sending up righthander Matt O'Brien, who posted a 7-2 record for West Michigan this season, with a 2.19 ERA. The game starts at 6:30 central/7:30 EST and can be heard live over the internet at http://www.whitecaps-baseball.com/.

Boxscore
Log
Wrap
MiLB.com
Snappers
Whitecaps
MLive
MLive (Below)
MLive (Laster)
BDN (08/12/07)

The Trenton Thunder found themselves 2 games up in the Eastern League Playoffs Wednesday night when Colin Curtis walked, moved to 2nd on a wid pitch and scored on Noah Hall's ground ball to right field in the ninth inning to give the Yankees farm team a 3-2 win over the visiting Akron Aeros.

A Michael Aubrey double and throwing error by Marcos Vechionacci helped the Aeros to an early 2-0 lead in the 4th inning.

The Yankees took one back in the fifth when Curtis was plated by a P.J. Pilittere line drive. They then trailed until the 8th inning when Gabriel Lopez doubled in Vechionacci.

The series now travels to Akron's Canal Park for game 3. MiLB.com

The Devil Rays' affiliated Durham Bull bashed their way to a 5-1 win in Raleigh to tie up the Governer's Cup International League Championship Series at one game each.

Michael Hernandez was 3-for-4 with a run and 2 RBIs for the home team, while Evan Longoria was 2-for-4 with a run and 2 RBIs.

Blaine Boyer suffered the loss for the Richmond Braves, which will host game three of the series Thursday night at The Diamond.

Jeff Niemann fanned nine over a career-high eight innings for Durham allowing only 1 run - a home run to Richmond lead off man Gregor Blanco - on six hits to pick up the win. MiLB.com

No comments: