Defenders Nip Rock Cats, 5-4

June 24, 2007 - Eastern League (EL1)
Connecticut Defenders News Release


The Connecticut Defenders recovered from a loss last night to defeat the New Britain Rock Cats 5-4 on a beautiful Sunday afternoon on June 24 at Dodd Stadium. Geno Espineli was solid on the hill and the bats came through with some timely hitting to win their third ball game in five contests.

The Defenders jumped out to an early 2-0 lead after putting up a run in both the first and second inning, off an RBI double by John Bowker and an RBI groundout by Jake Wald. On the other side of things, Espineli had the changeup working and kept the Rock Cats bats off balance, retiring the first 9 batters he faced.

The Rock Cats tied things up in the fourth inning though after OF Luke Hughes led off the inning with a single, SS Trevor Plouffe followed with a triple to drive in Hughes, and a batter later 3B Matt Moses delivered an RBI single to score Plouffe and tie up the game at 2.

The score remained that way until the bottom of the seventh inning. Back-to-back singles by 3B Simon Klink and 1B Pat Dobson knocked Rock Cats starter Jesse Floyd out of the game. RHP Danny Powers came in on relief and gave up a 2-run single to 2B Mark Minicozzi, who advanced on to second on the throw home from the outfield. C Todd Jennings sacrificed Minicozzi over to third base and SS Jake Wald followed with a perfectly executed suicide squeeze to score Minicozzi and reach base at first with nobody covering. The hit scored the third run of the inning and the Defenders led 5-2 after seven full innings.

But in the top of the ninth things would get interesting. Reliever Joe Bateman entered his third inning of work and allowed the first to batters to reach on a walk to OF Matt Allegra and a single to 2B Felix Molina. Bateman was lifted in favor of RHP Osiris Matos out of the bullpen, but things continued to get dicey. Matos retired the next two batters in order but then gave up a2-run single to Trevor Plouffe, scoring Allegra and Molina to cut the Defenders lead to 1 run. But Matos recovered to strike out DH David Winfree swinging to end the game and preserve the Connecticut win, 5-4.

Jesse Floyd (L, 4-5) absorbed his fifth loss of the year after dealing 6 innings, giving up 4 runs (3 earned), 4 hits, 2 walks, and striking out 3 batters. Espineli did not factor in the decision but went 6.2 innings, surrendering 2 runs, 7 hits, 1 walk and struck out 5 batters. Joe Bateman (W, 1-1) took the victory with 1.1 innings of duty, giving up 2 runs, 3 hits and walking a batter. Osiris Matos (S, 3) collected his third save of the season after an inning of work, allowing 1 hit, just an inherited runner to score and striking out a batter. Jake Wald went 1 for 3 with 2 RBI and Mark Minicozzi went 1 for 2 with 2 RBI and a run scored. The Defenders host the Rock Cats in the finale of a four game set on Monday June 25 at 6:35 p.m. The game will feature a pitching matchup between LHP Ryan Mullins (0-1, 2.28 ERA) and RHP Nick Pereira (3-7, 4.30).



Eastern League Stories from June 24, 2007


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