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Dogs hang on for 7-6 win

July 7, 2012 - North American League (NAmL)
Abilene Prairie Dogs News Release


FORT WORTH, TX - When Mitch Mormann imagined how things would unfold in his first game as a professional baseball player, it's unlikely that Saturday's events matched his imagination. Randall Thorpe charged the rookie on the mound after being hit with a first-pitch fastball in the bottom of the third inning. Thorpe's reaction resulted in a benches-clearing scene that led to four ejections. While Mormann was not thrown out, he was removed from the game. But when the dust settled, the Dogs had evened the series at two with a rambunctious 7-6 victory in Fort Worth.

Brandon Jones continued his remarkable July by whacking a two-run homer to give the Cats a 5-3 lead in the top of the third. Mormann then hit Scott Dalrymple in the left shoulder. The catcher shared words with Zach Welch and begrudgingly walked to first. And after Thorpe was struck in the head with the very next pitch, the center fielder charged the hill and the benches emptied. When tempers had calmed, Fort Worth lost a pair of players to ejection: reliever T.J Bozeman and Friday's starting pitcher Trevor Harden. In addition, Cats' bullpen coach Jeff Russell was also ejected. The only Abilene participant who was thrown out of the game was left fielder Geraldo Valentin.

While Mormann, the rookie starter making his professional debut, was not ejected, Bobby Brown did remove the youngster in favor of Matt Larkins. The righty from California got the only man he faced in the third on groundout and totaled 41/3 innings of work out of the bullpen. His scoreless performance, which featured five strikeouts, was good enough to bring the Dogs into the eighth inning with the lead and good enough to produce his first professional victory.

Trailing 5-4 in the top of the sixth, Abilene strung together three consecutive singles from Danny Gonzalez, Welch, and Jason Martin to load the bases against Cats' starter Steve Barnes, and Wilson Batista followed with a game-tying, R.B.I. single into right field. After Bryan Fogle - hitting in the place of Valentine - struck out, Joe Weik drove in the go-ahead run with his league-leading 37 th R.B.I on a bases loaded walk. Kyle Nichols extended the lead by lifting a sacrifice fly into right field to make it a 7-5 game.

With his team leading by the same score, Ray Silva entered the game in the bottom of the eighth. After throwing 30 pitches in last night's loss, Silva allowed a one-out double to Randall Thorpe and an R.B.I. triple to Jon Dziomba. With the tying run on third, Chuck Caufield grounded out to the third baseman Wilson Batista with the infield in, and Shelby Ford flied out to center field to end the inning.

Working with a weary bullpen, Bobby Brown called on lefty Kevin Gelinas with a 7-6 lead in the bottom of the ninth. After hitting Jose Ruiz to put the tying run aboard, RJ Harris dropped down a sacrifice bunt to move the runner to second. Gelinas struck out CJ Beatty to set up another opportunity for Friday night's hero, Brandon Jones. Having already homered in the game, Jones ran dry on magic when Gelinas got the best of the power-hitting righty on a fly out to center field to end the game.

Gelinas picked up his first professional save on the same night his teammate Matt Larkins gathered his first win as a pro.

The Dogs and Cats will tangle in game five of the series at 6:05 on Sunday night. Hear the game on 106.9 KLGD or on the internet at abileneprairiedogs.com beginning with the First Financial pregame show at 5:55.

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