Fish Celebrate Championship and Home Opener Win
May 28, 2013 - American Association (AA)
Winnipeg Goldeyes News Release
On Monday night, the Winnipeg Goldeyes presented their 2012 American Association championship rings, raised their 2012 American Association championship banner and then went out and played an almost perfect baseball game.
Behind a tremendous start from Matt Rusch and a huge two-run double from Tim Smith - a double that provided the game winning run - the defending champion Goldeyes beat the Laredo Lemurs 4-1 to win their 2013 home opener.
Playing in front of a capacity-plus crowd of 7,886 at Shaw Park, the Goldeyes turned a sensational double play, made a handful of eye-popping plays in the field and got tremendous pitching performances from Rusch and relievers Chris Kissock, Brendan Lafferty and Patrick Keating, as they improved to 9-2 on the season and handed Laredo (10-1) its first loss of the year.
It was an evening of celebration that was climaxed by a terrific fireworks show. In-between, the Goldeyes played brilliantly, scoring four runs on 10 hits while committing no errors.
"We just wanted to go and play a good ball game and hopefully come up with a win," Goldeyes manager Rick Forney told Paul Edmonds on the TSN 1290 post-game show. "I thought Matt Rusch was very good tonight. He changed speeds and used both sides of the plate. I thought his command was real good. We just wanted to play well and I thought we did that."
Indeed. The Goldeyes opened the scoring in the third inning when Josh Mazzola singled home Nick Liles. After Laredo tied it in the top of the fourth, the Goldeyes blew it open in the sixth when Smith hit a double down the first-base line that scored both Mazzola and Casey Haerther to give Winnipeg a 3-1 lead. Smith came home later in the inning on a single by Amos Ramon and that was it.
"It was just one of those at bats," said Smith, on the Shaw TV post-game show. "I just wanted to see the ball as well as I could and make a good swing. It was a great night. When you hand a team its first loss of the year that's pretty satisfying."
Rusch pitched six complete innings allowing just one run on four hits. Kissock pitched a perfect seventh, Lafferty a perfect eighth and while Keating allowed one hit in the ninth, the Lemurs were held scoreless and the Goldeyes had their ninth win of the young season.
Mazzola was the hitting star of the night. He went three-for-three with a run scored and an RBI and raised his batting average to .349. Smith had two hits in four trips with a run scored and the two biggest RBI of the night.
Rusch was the winner (3-0, 1.50 ERA), while Keating picked up his fourth save. David Newman was the Lemurs' hard-luck loser (1-1, 3.24 ERA).
Tuesday night, lefty Mark Hardy (2-0, 0.73 ERA) will get the start for Winnipeg while lefty Mark Serrano (3-0, 1.97) will start for Laredo.
Game time is 7:05 p.m. Tickets can be purchased by clicking on Ticketmaster.ca, calling 1-855-GOLDEYE or visiting any Ticketmaster location, including the Shaw Park box office.
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