Pioneers Strand Tying Runner at 3rd in 4-3 loss to Lumberjacks
Published on July 27, 2002 under Canadian American League (Can-Am)
Elmira Pioneers News Release
Saturday, July 27, 2002 - Dunn Field, Elmira, NY Osmani Garcia was left stranded at 3rd base as Ron Bush's pop-out to shallow CF ended Saturday night's ball-game in a 4-3 loss to the Adirondack Lumberjacks at Dunn Field in front of 1126 fans. Elmira scored 2 runs in the bottom of the 8th to close the gap to 3-2 but Adirondack scored 1 in the top of the 9th and it turned out to bea most valuable insurance run.
Osmani Garcia hit a high-towering shot in the 9th after Brian Jones drew a lead-off walk but the potential game-tying HR fell just short as it hit off the wall for a long single. Newcomer Cesar King bunted the runners to 2nd and 3rd and Norm Hutchins grounded out bringing home Jones and advancing Garcia to 3rd. With the tying runner 90 feet away, ron Bush fouled off 3 straight pitches but was the final out of the ball game as he popped up on a high curve ball by Bobby Cowan who got his first save after relieveingcloser Fontella Jones following Garcia's near HR.
Denny Lail (1-3) was the winner for Adirondack after having a 9+ ERA in 5 previous appearance since joining the Lumberjacks. He held the Pioneers to 4-hits and 0 runs in the first 7 innings before surrendering a pair of runs in the bottom of the 8th.
Sean Brummett (6-3) threw well in the losing cause allowing only 4 hits in 7ip. But Adirondack was able to turn their hits into 3rd earned runs. Brummett walked none and had 8 K's to work into 2nd in the league in strikeouts with 76. Elmira has played 4 consecutive 1-run games going 2-2 in the stretch. The Pioneers are 3-2 on their homestand and the season series with Adirondack is even at 4 games apiece.
Lorenzo De La Cruz and Garrett Larkin had 2 RBI's each to pace the Adirondack attack. De La Cruz started the scoring with a solo HR in the top of the 4th. Adirondack scored in the 5th to make it 2-0 as Steve King singled, stole 2nd on abad throw by Brian Jones despite a Pioneers pitchout and then moving on a Sac-bunt by Todd Brock and a Sac-Fly by Larkin. In the 6th the L-Jacks made it 3-0 with Mitsuru Kobayashi singling to LF, advancing on a groundout, stealing 3rd without a throw and scoring when De La Cruz beat out an infield single.
Elmira got their 2 runs in the bottom of the 8th to close the margin to 3-2 on a single by Ron Bush and a double by Brandon Pernell. Bush scored on a Rolando Bello groundout and Pernell made it in on a Sac-fly to LF by Rafael Alvarezas Lorenzo De La Cruz's throw bounced out of the glove of catcher Brad Hargreaves as Pernell dodged out of the way of the tag.
Adirondack made it 4-2 in the 9th with De La Cruz getting hit by a pitch by reliever Chris Brown. He advanced on agroundout and was able to tag up and move to 3rd on Steve King's long fly to CF. After Todd Brock walked Larkin singled home De La Cruz with a knock to RF. Shigeki Sano (1-1) starts against Joe Magri (0-0) in the homestand finale Sunday afternoon at 1:05 on Summer Cohesion Day. The Pioneers have dropped their last 7 straight Sunday contests and have been outscored by a combined count of 56-13. After a day off on Monday, the Pioneers will embark on a 6-game road-trip through Albany and New Jersey.
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