Estes Spins 3-hit Shutout Gem in 5-0 win at Albany
Published on June 11, 2002 under Canadian American League (Can-Am)
Elmira Pioneers News Release
Eric Estes certainly did not look like a pitcher with a 7.59 ERA Tuesday night at Heritage Park. The 6'4" RH fired a complete game 9-inning 3-hitter and the Pioneers snapped their 2-game losing streak with a 5-0 win at the Diamond Dogs.
Estes (2-1) recorded 8 strikeouts including 2 in the 8th and 2 in the 9th. He walked 1 and allowed only 3 others to reach via base-hits. The Washington State University product retired the first 9 batters to begin the ball-game and went on to put away 10 straight from the 5th through the 8th. Estes was pitching on 10 days rest having last thrown June 1st and it appeared the extra rest worked well for him.
The Diamond Dogs almost scored in the 5th inning when they had runners at 2nd and 3rd with 1 out on a bb and 2b by Aaron Sledd and Carlos Sepulveda. Estes preserved the 2-0 advantage with a strikeout and groundout.
Estes spun the first complete game of the season for the Pioneers and finished the team's 3rd shutout.
He also relied on some fine defensive plays behind him including two in the 1st inning. Norm Hutchins ran down a long drive to deep left-center off the bat of Steve Truitt making a running basket over-the-shoulder catch. The next batter hit a sharp bouncer down the 3rd base line that Osmani Garcia was able to smother and convert into an out.
Other great plays include Brian Baker's shoe-string catch of a hard-sinking line-drive to RF in the 3rd and Osmani Garcia's long throw from foul territory behind the third-base bag to get Juan Espinal in the 5th. Norm Hutchins and Brian Baker both made good running catches in the right-center gap on deep drives in the 6th and 7th innings respectively.
The Pioneers took advantage of more Albany-Colonie errors in posting the early lead. Ron Bush legged out an infield single to begin the game. He advanced to 2nd on Bobby Hill's sac-bunt and scored on the play by racing to 3rd when the Diamond Dogs left the bag unguarded and 1B Vic Davila threw the ball wildly away.
Brian Baker doubled in the 5th and scored on a throwing error on Bobby Hill's infield single in the 5th to make the score 2-0. Brian Jones added a 2-run bases loaded single in the 8th . Ron Bush singled and scored again in the 9th to cap the scoring. Albany has made 8 errors in 2 games and they lead the NL with 45 total errors.
The rubber match of the 3-game series is Wednesday night at 7:05 with LH Sean Brummet (1-0, 3.05) slated to start for the Pioneers. Greg Keagle (3-1, 2.17) will start Thursday night at New Jersey to begin a 4-game set.
Canadian American League Stories from June 11, 2002
- Estes Spins 3-hit Shutout Gem in 5-0 win at Albany - Elmira Pioneers
- Quebec Pitching Does in Black Bears - Berkshire Black Bears
- Pioneers Drop Heartbreaker 5-4 at Albany-Colonie - Elmira Pioneers
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