SAL1 Charleston Dirty Birds

Captains Rally Past Power

July 2, 2009 - South Atlantic League (SAL1)
Charleston Dirty Birds News Release


Eastlake, OH (July 2, 2009) - The Lake County Captains used four bunts and capitalized on a pair of Power throwing errors in the eighth inning as they scored all four of their runs in that frame and took Thursday night's game at Classic Park with a 4-1 victory over the Power.

The starting pitching was sensational. Rafael De Los Santos tossed five and two-thirds scoreless innings for the Power and allowed just three hits. Lake County's Danny Salazar tossed six scoreless innings and held the Power to just a trio of hits as well. The Power had just a pair of base runners reach second base against Salazar and the Captains had only a pair reach scoring position against De Los Santos as well.

Calvin Anderson walked to start the seventh inning and moved to second base on a balk. Bobby Spain's groundout to second baseman Matt Willard put Anderson on third base and he scored West Virginia's lone run later in the seventh on Brett Willemburg's groundout.

Willard started the eighth inning for Lake County on a bunt base hit. Delvi Cid laid down a sacrifice bunt with Willard on first base and Duke Welker's errant throw to first went into right field, putting Willard on third and Cid at second. Bo Greenwell singled into center field to score Willard and Cid to give the Captains the lead. Karexon Sanchez then put a bunt down in front of the plate and Tony Sanchez's errant throw to first went into right field allowing Greenwell to score before Nate Recknagel singled in Sanchez to complete the inning.

Travis Turek (1-0) allowed a run on no hits and walked three over two innings of relief in a winning effort. Steve Smith (13) allowed two hits but fanned three batters in the ninth inning to secure the save. Duke Welker (0-9) in his first relief appearance of the season allowed all four runs in the eighth inning on three hits and was tagged with the loss.

West Virginia fell to 32-45 overall, and 5-2 in the second half after the loss, while the Captains improved to 36-39 overall and 5-3 in the second half after the win. Robbie Grossman singled in the sixth inning to bring his on base streak to 22 games. Calvin Anderson singled and walked twice, extending his on base streak to 15 games and Quincy Latimore started the game with a base hit in the first inning to extend his hitting streak to seven games. Latimore has ten hits on the road trip. West Virginia hit into three double plays on the night. Eight out of West Virginia's starting nine reached safely in the contest.

West Virginia will finish the four game series against the Lake County Captains at Classic Park on Friday night. The Power will start right hander Brian Leach (1-0, 2.09) and the Lake County Captains will counter with right hander Trey Haley (2-3, 5.77). The first pitch will be delivered at 7:00 PM.

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South Atlantic League Stories from July 2, 2009


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