2008 Season Comes To An End For Tornadoes

September 7, 2008 - Canadian American League (Can-Am)
Worcester Tornadoes News Release


Worcester, MA -- The Tornadoes were unable to protect an early 5-0 lead, as Worcester's magical '08 season came to an end on Sunday night, in an 8-6 defeat to the Sussex Skyhawks at Hanover Insurance Park at Fitton Field.

The Tornadoes bats began the game with a vengeance. Scott Grimes led off the bottom of the 1st inning with an infield hit off righty Matt Salvato, moved to third on a single by Chris Colabello and scored on an Alex Trezza sacrifice fly. Worcester tacked on two more in the 2nd inning. Omar Pena walked with two outs and scored on an opposite field triple off the rightfield wall by Mike MacMillan. MacMillan would then cross the plate on a swinging bunt infield single by Alex Pena for a 3-0 Tornadoes lead. Worcester kept coming at Salvato in the 3rd as B.J. Weed doubled and scored on a Colabello RBI single to center. Colabello moved to third base on a Trezza single (which knocked Salvato out of the game) and scored on a fielder's choice groundout by Francisco Caraballo for a 5-0 advantage.

Worcester took their 5-0 lead into the top of the 4th inning, but righthander Kyle Jackson (0-1) ran into trouble with two outs. Jay Yaconetti singled to center, scoring Chris Brown who had started the inning with a base hit. Leadoff man Ron Perodin then beat out a chopper to second base for an infield hit and Kevin Rios sent both baserunners home with a two-run double to deep centerfield. Jackson walked Jorge Moreno, then served up an opposite-field three-run home run to Matt Weston, eliminating the Tornadoes' five-run cushion and giving Sussex the 6-5 lead. The Sky hawks tacked on a couple of insurance runs off Eddie Pena in the 5th inning on a walk, a hit batter, a double steal and a two-run seeing-eye single to rightfield by Yaconetti. That made it 8-5 in favor of the Skyhawks, as their bullpen went to work on the Tornadoes hitters. Lefty Craig Snipp tossed 3.2 shutout frames and righthander Michael Laluna followed with 1.2 scoreless innings of his own. Sussex Closer Matt Petrusek ran into some trouble in the 9th as the Tornadoes loaded the bases with one out on two singles and a walk, but Omar Pena and MacMillan hit into back-to-back fielder's choice groundouts to end the ballgame and Worcester's season.

Snipp (1-0) picked up the win and Jackson (0-1) was saddled with the loss. Petrusek was credited with his 3rd save in his last three games. The Skyhawks advance to the Can-Am League Championship series and await the winner of the semifinals series between Quebec and Atlantic City. The Tornadoes conclude a season that saw them place four players on the Postseason All-Star Team, feature the Can-Am League Player of the Year in Scott Grimes and win 53 games during the regular season, a franchise record.



Canadian American League Stories from September 7, 2008


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