Jackals foil Tornadoes in extras

July 1, 2008 - Canadian American League (Can-Am)
Worcester Tornadoes News Release


Little Falls, NJ -- The Tornadoes scored three times in the top of the 9th to take a one-run lead, only to see the Jackals tie it in the bottom of the inning, then win it in the 10th, as New Jersey won their sixth straight over Worcester, 7-6, at Yogi Berra Stadium on Tuesday night.

The game started out well for Worcester, as for the first time in six meetings with the Jackals this season, the Tornadoes scored first. B.J. Weed started the game by dumping a single to leftfield, extending his hitting streak to 18 games and setting a new Tornadoes franchise record for longest hitting streak in the process. Weed stole second base and scored on a one-out RBI single by Chris Colabello. But the Tornadoes defense let down righty Alex Pena (making his first start for Worcester in 10 months) in the bottom of the first. With one out, Mike MacMillan was unable to handle a Matt Lauderdale grounder for an error. After Luke Allen struck out, Pena hit Chris Kelly with a pitch, then served up a long three-run home run to leftcenter off the bat of Juan Tejeda to put the Jackals up 3-1. All three runs were unearned.

The Tornadoes would tie it in the 4th off Jackals lefty Isaac Pavlik. Francisco Caraballo led off with a tremendous home run to left, his league high-tying 8th of the season. With one out, Chuck Jeroloman drew a walk, and came around to score after back-to-back singles by Omar Pena and Mike MacMillan to tie things at 3-3. But Alex Pena ran into trouble with two outs in the 7th, walking consecutive batters, then allowing RBI singles to Andrew Larsen and Tejeda that put the Jackals back up, 5-3. New Jersey took that lead into the 9th inning, but their usually reliable closer, lefty Rusty Tucker, couldn't hold it. MacMillan led off with a double off the base of the wall in left and Jeff LaHair blooped a single to right, putting men at first and third. Tucker uncorked a couple of wild pitches while walking B.J. Weed as MacMillan scored. Weed moved to second on another wild pitch and both he and LaHair scored on a clutch two-run single to center by Scott Grimes that put Worcester up 6-5.

However, Tornadoes Closer John Birtwell was unable to hold the lead in the bottom half of the 9th. He hit Lauderdale with one out, then gave up a Luke Allen single to center. Larsen followed with a walk to load the bases and Tejeda re-tied the game with a ground single to left, his fifth RBI of the night. Birtwell fanned Vic Davila and Craig Maddox to preserve the tie, but couldn't do so again in the bottom of the 10th. Zack Smithlin led off with a flare single to center and was sacrificed to second base. He moved to third on a passed ball charged to Alex Trezza and scored the winning run on a walkoff sacrifice fly to rightfield by Marcus Sanders.

Righty Hunter Davis (2-2) tossed a scoreless 10th for the Win and Birtwell (0-1) took the Loss. The Tornadoes are now 1-2 in extra-inning games and 0-6 on the season against New Jersey. The loss drops Worcester 1.5 games behind first place Quebec and just .5 games ahead of third place New Jersey, with only 10 games remaining in the first half. The Tornadoes will try to salvage one game of their three-game series in New Jersey and earn their first victory of the season against the Jackals on Wednesday night when they send righthander Junior Guererro to the mound in the series finale. He will be opposed by New Jersey righty Aaron Tressler. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05pm.

The Tornadoes return home on Thursday, July 3rd to host the Nashua Pride at 7:05pm. It will be Armed Forces Night at the ballpark and in honor of the July 4th holiday, the Tornadoes will feature their fourth postgame fireworks show of the season, courtesy of Becker College and Price Chopper. Tickets for the game are available in person by stopping by the Tornadoes box office at the ballpark or at the team office located at 303 Main St. in Worcester, by phone at 508-792-2288 or online by visiting www.worcestertornadoes.com.



Canadian American League Stories from July 1, 2008


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