Miscues, Silent Bats Costly for Hawks

April 7, 2013 - Midwest League (MWL1)
South Bend Silver Hawks News Release


The sun was shining bright in South Bend on Sunday afternoon. However, in a 5-0 shutout loss to the Bowling Green Hot Rods, a dark cloud seemed to hang over the Silver Hawks on both offense and defense. The Class A Affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks was caught up in a tempest of defensive errors. At the same time the Bowling Green pitchers reduced the home team's offensive output to a mere drizzle.

The trouble began early for the South Bend defense. In the top of the first inning, the Hawks committed three errors over the course of only two Bowling Green at-bats. With Hot Rod's centerfielder Andrew Toles batting and Tommy Coyle on second base, South Bend starting pitcher Blake Perry threw a wild pitch. Coyle moved up to third base on the ball in the dirt. While he was on the way, Hawks catcher Ronnie Freeman picked up the ball and fired to third in an attempt to catch Coyle. Unfortunately, the throw was off the mark, and it continued on into left field. As a result of Freeman's throwing error, Coyle scored. As Toles' plate appearance resumed, the Silver Hawks' difficulties compounded. Toles reached on a fielding error by second baseman, Fidel Pena. Adding insult to injury, the next batter Tyler Goeddel grounded into a potential double-play, only to find himself safe at first base on a fielding error by third baseman Brandon Drury. After a stolen base by Toles, the Hawks were able to get themselves out of the inning, by converting a 4-3 double play. South Bend escaped after giving up only one run, which despite three errors in the inning, was charged as an earned run against Perry.

In the top of the third inning, South Bend gave up the second run of the game on a fielding error by first baseman Fraizer Hall. Had Hall been able to convert the play the Hawks would have been out of the inning. After giving up another run in the fifth inning on a two-out RBI fly-ball single by Toles, the difficulty continued in the seventh. Bowling Green's Coyle batted what would have otherwise been a routine groundball off of the bag at third base. As the ball bounded away from the fielders, Joey Rickard scored from second. Toles followed up with an infield single to Pena at second base. However, in an attempt to cut Toles down at first, Pena threw the ball away, allowing Toles to advance to second and Coyle to score. South Bend added a sixth error in the top of the ninth inning. Rickard was allowed to reach base on Pena's third throwing error of the game.

The Silver Hawks' difficulty on defense was matched in the batter's box. Bowling Green starting pitcher, Sean Bierman held the Hawks hitless for the first four innings. The only hit he allowed was a ground ball single to center field by Ryan Court to lead off the bottom of the fifth inning. In all, the Tampa Bay Rays' pitching prospect completed five innings. He threw 53 pitches, including 32 strikes, striking out one and walking one.

Mother nature earned an assist in the shutout of the Silver Hawks. In the bottom of the 8th inning, South Bend catcher Ronnie Freeman sent a ball high and deep into left field. However it appeared to be kept in the park by the 16 knot north wind. Freeman had to settle for a double.

The Silver Hawks begin a three game series against the Dayton Dragons, the Class A Affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds, Monday at 7:05 p.m.



Midwest League Stories from April 7, 2013


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