SAL1 Charleston Dirty Birds

Miller Tosses Six Scoreless Frames in Power Win

July 30, 2009 - South Atlantic League (SAL1)
Charleston Dirty Birds News Release


Charleston, WV (July 29, 2009) - West Virginia Power right hander Quinton Miller kept the Hagerstown Suns off the board in the first six innings of Thursday night's contest at Municipal Stadium and the Power offense scored eight times on 11 hits to take the first game of the series with an 8-3 victory.

Clutch two-out singles from Starling Marte and Robbie Grossman produced the first two runs of the contest. Jeremy Farrell walked to start the second inning and scored the game's first run on Marte's base hit and Adenson Chourio came home on Grossman's single. Kyle Morgan started the third inning with a solo homerun, his third of the year with West Virginia to give the Power a 3-0 lead. Marte was on second base in the fourth inning with two down when Grossman hit a groundball to second baseman Valerio Heredia who threw the ball over the head of first baseman Tyler Moore, and the errant throw allowed Marte to score.

The Power scored two more times in the sixth inning to take their largest lead of the night. Austin McClune began the inning with a base hit, extending his hitting streak to ten games, before stealing second and third, and scored on Chourio's groundout. Tony Sanchez reached on a fielder's choice later in the inning which allowed Greg Picart to score. The Suns got all three of their runs in the bottom of the seventh on run scoring singles from Heredia, Robby Jacobsen and Moore. Morgan knocked in West Virginia's final two runs in the top of the eighth inning on a two-out single.

Miller (1-2) tossed six scoreless innings and allowed six hits, while fanning three to earn his first professional victory. Hagerstown right hander A.J. Morris, a fourth round pick by the Nationals in this year's draft out of Kansas State was tagged with the loss after allowing four runs on six hits in four innings.

West Virginia improved to 45-57 overall, and 18-14 in the second half after the victory, while the Suns fell to 44-57 overall and 13-21 in the second half after the loss. Quincy Latimore went 0-for-5, bringing his hitting streak to an end at 14 games. Robbie Grossman paced the Power with a three-hit performance. Chourio, Morgan and Marte chipped in with two hits a piece. Marte has now hit safely in 16 straight games and has reached in all 27 games with the Power. Morgan knocked in three runs and has driven in 11 runs in nine games with the Power.

West Virginia will begin a four game series against the Hagerstown Suns at Municipal Stadium on Thursday night. The starting pitchers have not been announced. The first pitch will be delivered at 7:05 PM.

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