Defenders Outlast Baysox
Published on July 28, 2009 under Eastern League (EL1)
Connecticut Defenders News Release
BOWIE, CT- When the ball players arrived at Prince George's Stadium earlier today they didn't know what the night had in store. A game that featured ejections, tons of runs, errors, flying bats and balls, a position player pitching and in the end, Connecticut held on for a 13-12 win in 4 hours and 27 minutes.
Pinch hitter Eddy Martinez-Esteve blasted a two run homerun over the left field wall in the top of the eleventh inning to put Connecticut in front for the final time as well as evened up the best of four series at one game apiece.
With a one run lead in the second inning, C-Steve Torrealba pulled a two run homer over the leftfield wall to give Bowie the lead. Defenders' starter LHP-Madison Bumgarner would then retire the next two batters before rendering a single to LF-Jonathan Tucker. Bumgarner had a 1-0 count on CF-Daniel Figueroa before loosing the handle on a fastball that sailed well behind Figueroa leading to Bumgarner's immediate ejection by home plate umpire Cory Hinga. Things would get worse for Connecticut as reliever LHP-Ben Snyder was struck by a line drive off the bat of Figueroa causing his departure from the game. Snyder would walk off on his own power though.
Bowie would add four runs in the third to climb out to a comfortable 7-2 lead before Connecticut began their comeback. The Defenders plated three runs in the fourth and three in the seventh to take the lead 8-7 off RF-Mike Mooney's RBI single.
They would add to that in the eighth taking advantage of one of four 3B-Miguel Abreu errors as SS-Brandon Crawford delivered an RBI double to plate McBryde. Bowie trimmed it back to one run in the home half of the inning with a CF-Dan Figueroa solo blast.
The Baysox tied it up in the ninth when Connecticut opted for the double play off the bat of SS-Robert Valido with the bases loaded scoring Abreu from third.
The Defenders went up again in the tenth by two runs before giving it right back when 1B-Eric Crozier hit a monster two run homer to right center to tie it at 11-11.
In the bottom of the eleventh, Connecticut turned to veteran infielder Ramon Castro to pitch the final frame since they ran out of pitchers. After retiring the first two batters the Baysox trimmed the lead to one with an RBI single by LF-Jonathan Tucker. Castro would then hit Figueroa with two strikes putting the potential game winning rub aboard before getting Crozier to pop out to right-field for the final out and captured his first professional save.
In just his second day with the team, RHP-Shane Kauffman (1-0) earned the win while John Mariotti (2-9) suffered the loss for the Baysox.
Game three will feature Defenders' RHP-Tim Alderson (6-1) vs. Baysox RHP-Ryohei Tanaka (0-1). First pitch is slated at 7:05pm from Prince George's Stadium.
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