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Abilene Slips in Edinburg

June 28, 2012 - North American League (NAmL)
Abilene Prairie Dogs News Release


EDINBURG, TX - 10 days ago the Prairie took the Field in Abilene and stormed to their fourth win in five games behind the masterful work of Woods Fines. In his best start of the season, the righty allowed only an earned run over eight innings. However, things unfolded much differently on Thursday night in Edinburg. Again Fines took to the hill, but this time the tall righty lasted only five innings on the way to a 6-2 Roadrunners' victory.

Fines breezed through the first 21/3 innings as he retired each of the first eight batters. But the ninth man to come to the plate used one swing to shift the tide with a massive controversy. As Tim Battle yanked an inside pitch down the line in left-field, home plate umpire Hector Esparza distributed the home run signal. The minute Fines realized that the long fly ball was not foul he darted in disbelief toward the Esparza who was standing in the third baseline. The entire Prairie Dogs' infield and manager Bobby Brown soon joined Fines' protest. After a long conference with base umpire Fernando De La Garza, the call stood and the score was newly tied at one.

When Fines returned to the hill in the bottom of the fourth inning, he allowed a one-out single to Derek Perren and a two-out knock to Felix Molina. After walking Osiel Flores, Fines yielded an infield single and an R.B.I. to Cristobal Santana - who was 2-for-4 with a run scored - and then walked Pascual Del Real with the bases loaded to force in the third run and allow the Roadrunners to gain a two run edge.

Miguel Martinez entered the ballgame with the second best ERA in the United League, and the lefty from Puerto Rico lived up to his billing in game two of the series. Martinez allowed two runs - a pair of R.B.I. singles from Zach Welch - on the way to his fifth win of the season. Martinez scattered eight hits and struck out five batters.

The Roadrunners widened their lead again in the sixth inning when they scored three times to take a 6-2 advantage.

Joe Weik (2-for-4), Bryan Fogle (2-for-4), and Welch (3-for-5) teamed up to total seven of the Dogs eight hits in the game.

Kyle Nichols sat out for the third consecutive game after straining his left calf in San Angelo on Sunday.

The same teams will square off in game three of the four-game set on Friday night at Edinburg Stadium. Hear the game on 106.9 KLGD or on the internet at abileneprairiedogs.com beginning with the pregame show at 6:55.

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