Lyden and Kunion Ejected in 5-3 loss at Adirondack
Published on June 25, 2002 under Canadian American League (Can-Am)
Elmira Pioneers News Release
An emotionally charged evening of baseball resulted in a 5-3 Adirondack Lumberjacks victory over the Elmira Pioneers in front of 1,053 fans at East Field in Glens Falls, NY.
Manager Mitch Lyden and Coach Jeff Kunion were both ejected in the 8th inning arguing a runner's obstruction call on Rafael Alvarez that resulted in Pedro Quero being ruled out on a double-play. 3B umpire Shawn Francis made the controversial call that brought the heated arguments. Kunion later tossed a full-water cooler out of the dug-out and then threw a bucket of baseballs from the Pioneers bullpen into left-field. It was the first time this year either Lyden or Kunion had been tossed. Adirondack 1B Steve King was also ejected in the 5th inning arguing a called strike 3 with HP umpire Art Thigpen.
A great pitchers duel to begin, both LH Jeff Andra and LH Chad Ward were spinning shutout ball through the first 5 innings. They entered the evening 1st and 4th in the league in the ERA respectively.
Elmira started the scoring with a pair of runs on Ward in the top of the 6th. Rod Smith blooped a 1-out double barely fair into shallow-right to start the rally. Ron Bush singled to left. Smith then scored from 3rd on a spinning single to left just wide of Adirondack 3B Garrett Larkin. Pedro Quero singled in Bush from 3rd to give Elmira a 2-0 lead.
Adirondack took advantage of a couple of lost fly-balls and another controversial call to push across 5-runs in the bottom of the 6th against Andra. With runners at 1st and 3rd and 1-out, Lorenzo DeLaCruz doubled to the side of RF Rod Smith. Smith came in at first, then raced back, and then tried to recover after going back to far. The ball fell just to his side, possibly knocked down by the wind which was blowing in throughout the night. He also appeared to have possibly stumbled on something in the outfield as he just missed making the catch. Mitsuru Kobayashi scored to make it 2-1.
With runners on 2nd and 3rd, the next batter, Rodney Clifton, hit a ground-ball to 3B Osmani Garcia who fired to 1st. With Eppy Guerrero charging home Vasquez threw plate-ward but Guerrero was ruled safe on a slide around the tag of Brian Jones. While Mitch Lyden was arguing the call at home, the Pioneers learned that the batter was also ruled safe at 1st when it was judged that Vasquez pulled his foot off the bag too early to throw home. Lyden argued both plays to no avail.
Later, Garrett Larkin blasted a 2-run double to left that Rafael Alvarez appeared to lose completely in the lights. Alvarez had an extremely late reaction to the ball which landed just past his reach.
Brian Jones reached on a dropped third-strike passed-ball in the 7th and was pushed around on a single to center by Sandy Vasquez, a wild pitch by Chad Ward and a single to left by Bobby Hill.
The best fireworks came in the 8th inning on the runner's obstruction call on Alvarez that brought the ejections of Lyden and Kunion.
Jeff Andra (4-3) allowed 5 earned runs in 7 innings to lose his place as the league's ERA leader.
Smith and Alvarez had 2 hits apiece for the Pioneers. Elmira has not announced their starter for game 2 of the series Wednesday night at 7. Adirondack starts Derek Santiago (2-2, 5.40). The Pioneers will start LH Sean Brummet in the series finale Thursday night.
Canadian American League Stories from June 25, 2002
- Lyden and Kunion Ejected in 5-3 loss at Adirondack - Elmira Pioneers
The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.
