Captains follow Heard to victory

June 27, 2009 - World TeamTennis (WTT)
Sacramento Capitals News Release


SHREVEPORT, La. - With two starters on the disabled list, the Shreveport-Bossier Captains signed local boy Jimmy Heard to come out and make his professional debut Saturday night against the Pensacola Pelicans. And the Airline High School and Northwestern State graduate did not disappoint, hurling five shutout innings as the Captains beat ace starter Kyle Middleton and Pensacola 5-2 in front of 1,119 at Fair Grounds Field.

The rookie allowed just three singles and three walks, getting a pickoff and a caught stealing along with four strikeouts in his first professional outing. He started the night by striking out Luis Guance swinging, and threw one-two-three innings in the first two frames. He gave up a hit and a stolen base in the third, but got two groundouts and a strikeout to end the frame.

Meanwhile, Middleton (2-1) cruised through the first four innings, allowing only a walk and a batter to reach on an error. But Jose Torres led off the bottom of the fifth with a single down the right field line. Up came rookie B.J. Wheeler, who laid down a sacrifice bunt to the left side. Catcher Justin Humphries picked up the ball right along the line, and his throw to first skipped by a slipping second baseman Antoin Gray and went all the way down the rightfield line, allowing Torres to score and Wheeler to go to third. With the Pensacola infield drawn in, Kevin Griffin followed with an RBI single up the middle to make it 2-0. The Captains (17-23) added another run with two outs that frame, when, with Griffin going on a 2-2 pitch, Dwayne White banged a single off the rightfield wall to make it 3-0.

Handed the lead, Heard (1-0) walked Guance to start the sixth, and was lifted to the cheers of the crowd for Robert Romero. The righty reliever allowed a single to Francisco Leandro, but Griffin made a smart throw to second to get the tail runner Leandro on an attempted double steal. Romero then struck out Gray and got Humphries to line out to first to end the inning.

Romero allowed a hit and a walk with one out in the seventh, and Matt Petty came on, and immediately gave up a single to Luis Bautista to make it 3-1. Petty came back to strike out Dallas Christison for the second out in the inning, but walked Guance and Leandro to force in a run. Now in a one-run game, Petty induced Gray to fly out to center to preserve the lead for Heard. Petty then threw a 1-2-3 eighth to send the game to the ninth.

The Captains added another unearned run on a base hit by White in the seventh, and then scored an earned run off reliever Aaron Jackson in the eighth when Christopher Garcia singled to left and Andres Rodriguez then hit a sinking liner to right. The rightfielder Rafael Alvarez tried to make a diving play on the ball, but it hit the ground and then hit Alvarez in the nose. With Alvarez lying in pain, the ball sat on the outfield grass, and Garcia raced all the way around to score.

Justin Dowdy then atoned for two rough outings against the Pelicans (19-22) with a perfect ninth inning to pick up his third save of the year.



World TeamTennis Stories from June 27, 2009


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central