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Indianapolis Indians

Local Kid Improves To 4-0, Indians Blank Ottawa 4-0

April 30, 2007 - International League (IL1)
Indianapolis Indians News Release


OTTAWA, Ontario -- Former Ball State star Bryan Bullington allowed just five hits over seven scoreless innings, while first-year Triple-A player Brian Bixler went 2-for-3 with an RBI double and two-run homer as Indianapolis rolled to a 4-0 blanking of Ottawa Monday afternoon at Lynx Stadium.

The Indians improve to 13-9 overall and 7-3 on the road, while the Lynx fall to 10-9 overall and 7-3 at home.

Bullington (7.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 1 SO), who missed all of 2006 while recovering from right shoulder surgery, improved to 4-0 with the victory and lowered his ERA to 1.17. The 26-year-old right-hander became the first student-athlete in Mid-American Conference history to be taken with the No. 1 overall pick in any sport when he was selected by the Pirates in the 2002 draft.

Bixler, a 24-year-old shortstop, extended his hitting streak to seven games by going 2-for-3 with one walk, two runs and three RBI. He put Indianapolis on the scoreboard with a run-scoring two bagger in the fifth and added a pair of insurance runs on his first Triple-A dinger in the seventh.

The Indians five through eight hitters combined to go 7-for-14 with three doubles, one roundtripper, four runs and four RBI. Bixler was backed up by 2B Jose Hernandez (2-for-4, 2 2B, 1 R), RF Luis Matos (2-for-3, 1 R) and C Einar Diaz (1-for-4, 1 RBI).

Bullington gave way to LHP Juan Perez (1.0 IP) and RHP Franquelis Osoria (1.0 IP, 1 SO) in the eighth and the Tribe relievers did not disappoint. The Indianapolis bullpen is now 4-1 with a 2.04 ERA through 22 games.

Ottawa LHP Brian Mazone (7.0 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 0 BB, 5 SO) fell to 2-2 with the loss, while the Lynx had five individuals with one base knock apiece.

Indianapolis and Ottawa end up splitting the series, even though the Indians held 17-to-6 advantage in runs scored and .289 to .208 upper hand in batting average over the four-game set. The two clubs will continue their season series with four tilts at Victory Field May 11-14.

Indianapolis continues its eight-game road trip with a four-game series at McCoy Stadium in Pawtucket, R.I. Indians LHP Shane Youman and PawSox LHP Abe Alvarez are the probables for Tuesday's opener at 6:15 p.m.

The contest will be carried by ESPN-950 AM and IndyIndians.com with Howard Kellman and Scott McCauley. The pre-game show begins at 5:55 p.m.

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