Beaty Powers Beetles to 7-2 Win

July 9, 2012 - Northwoods League (Northwoods)
Alexandria Beetles News Release


Thunder Bay, ON - In the Alexandria Beetles' previous ten games, Matt Beaty had led the team with a .385 batting average. On Monday, he connected on his first homerun of the season, a line-drive bomb pulled to right worthy of the Home Run Derby 800 miles south in Kansas City, and drove in four runs powering the Beetles to a 7-2 victory over the Thunder Bay Border Cats.

Beaty, who bottomed out at .122 after an 0-4 night in Rochester on June 26, has more than doubled his average since with hits in 12 of 13, a stretch that includes seven multiple-hit games.

Alexandria improved to 15-25 overall, 2-3 in the second half while the Border Cats dropped to 17-23, 1-4 in the second half.

The Border Cats opened the scoring with a Danny Bethea two-out single in the bottom of the first but Alexandria answered right back in the top of the second. Dylan Raper began a 3-4 night with a one-out single and Beaty smashed a payoff pitch into the dog park well beyond the right field fence. Catcher Robert Case followed with his first homerun of the season to left-center and the score was 3-1 Alexandria.

Brandon Johnson, in his first start of the year for the Beetles, departed after three innings of one-run ball and Andrew Busby pitched the next three keeping the Beetles in the lead.

Alexandria tacked on an insurance run in the top of the fifth on a Ben Moore sacrifice fly, and the Border Cats again pulled within two by stringing together three hits to start the sixth against Busby. But with the tying runs in scoring position and no one out, Busby struck out Patrick Gallagher and induced a pair of grounders to preserve the 4-2 lead.

Four hits in the eighth for the Beetles, including an RBI single by Ryan Padilla and a two-run double from Beaty gave the Beetles a comfortable 7-2 lead and Michael Reed and Caleb DeLee combined to pitch a perfect final three innings to secure the victory.

The Beetles and Border Cats split their 10 game series in 2012 with the home team each winning three of five.

Tanner Vavra went 3-5 raising his batting average to .398.

Alexandria concludes a five-game road trip with a 7:05 CDT start in Duluth on Monday as the Beetles and Huskies meet for the first time since the season's opening week.



Northwoods League Stories from July 9, 2012


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