CarL1 Myrtle Beach Pelicans

Lefty tosses eight shutout innings to lead Pelicans to 6-0 victory

Published on June 11, 2010 under Carolina League (CarL1)
Myrtle Beach Pelicans News Release


KINSTON, NC- In a rotation consisting of the top four pitching prospects in the Atlanta Braves organization, it's easy to overlook a soft-tossing lefty like Matt Crim, but with clinics like Crim put on Friday night against the Kinston Indians, it's going to be more difficult to ignore what the South Carolina native can do. In eight brilliant shutout innings, Crim struck out a career-high nine batters in earning his fourth win of the season as the Pelicans evened up this four-game set with the K-Tribe with a 6-0 victory.

For the Birds it was their third shutout of the season and their second in the last four games as their team ERA lowered to a season-low 4.19. Crim's performance was one of the highlights of the season in a year of phenomenal outings from Pelican hurlers as the lefty mixed in a dynamic breaking ball with good command of a two-seam fastball to keep the K-Tribe hitters off balance.

Crim's counterpart Joey Mahalic didn't receive as much good fortune on the evening as the right-hander was victimized by three costly Kinston errors, allowing five runs in his five innings of work with just two of those runs being earned.

The Pelicans put traffic on the basepaths all night long, knocking seven hits and walking a whopping nine times, but the team went just 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position and struck out a season-high 13 times. Fortunately for them, they took advantage of Kinston mistakes early and used Crim to put the K-Tribe away.

A Mike Jones sacrifice fly in the third got the ball rolling for the Pelican offense before Jesus Sucre unloaded on his fourth home run of the season off the top tier of signage in left, his first home run in nearly a month to give the Birds a 2-0 lead.

In the fifth, the Pelicans scored two runs on one of the wackier plays you will ever see. With Cole Miles on first and nobody out, Mycal Jones launched a fly ball to centerfield. The Kinston centerfielder, Jordan Henry, misplayed the baseball and it glanced off his glove for an error. Miles was racing around the basepaths and tried to score when the relay throw from shortstop Ron Rivas sailed wide behind the catcher Alex Castillo and Mahalic backing him up. With Miles in, the ball scooted away from Mahalic and Jones, running hard the whole time, came all the way around to score on the two-error play.

The Birds added two more runs to make it 6-0 and Paul Clemens tossed a 1-2-3 ninth to preserve the shutout.

These two teams will be at it again tomorrow night with first pitch scheduled for 7 ET. It will be lefty Brett Oberholtzer (2-3, 4.87) squaring off with lefty T.J. House (2-4, 3.38). You can catch all the action at myrtlebeachpelicans.com with the pregame show presented by the Hampton Inn starting at 6:45.

For more information on daily promotions, tickets, and all things Pelicans, log onto myrtlebeachpelicans.com or call 1-877-918-TIXX or 843-918-6000.

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Carolina League Stories from June 11, 2010


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