Portland defense overcomes Connecticut
June 4, 2006 - Eastern League (EL1)
Connecticut Defenders News Release
The Defenders hitting problems and some sparkling Portland defense dragged them down again on Sunday at Dodd Stadium as they lost to the first place Sea Dogs 3-0 and 4-0 in a double header. The Defenders went 0-6 on their home stand and have dropped ten of their last eleven.
Connecticut turned to Pat Misch to stop the bleeding in game one. Misch shut down the Portland Sea Dogs through three innings while the offense missed a scoring opportunity in the 2nd inning with runners on the corners and only one out. In the 4th inning a base hit by Chad Spann took a bad hop on right fielder Randy Walter and ended up going for a lead off triple. Clean up hitter Jeremy West singled Spann in to give the Dogs a 1-0 lead. Three consecutive singles in the 5th led to two more runs that made the score 3-0. That was all the support Portland starter Chris Smith would need. He surrendered four Defenders hits and only one walk, but no runs in a complete game seven-inning 3-0 victory.
In game two, the Sea Dogs transformed into an all gold glove squad. They also put some runs on the board starting in the first with a sacrifice fly by West to make the score 1-0. After a Brandon Moss walk, Luis Jiminez hit a seemingly routine ground ball to short that took a monstrous hop over Jake Wald's head to score another run and make it 2-0. Offensively the Defenders hit lefty Phil Seibel hard, but had hit after hit taken away by great defense. Tyler Von Schell took the worst of the burgluries including a diving catch in the left centerfield gap by Matt Van Der Bosch, robbing Von Schell of an extra base lead off hit, and a Chris Durbin catch at the wall to rob Von Schell of a game tying two run home run in the 4th inning.
In the fifth, Travis Ishikawa collected the team's first hit on a dribbler that didn't leave the infield, but in a baserunning blunder he was thrown out at third on the very next play when Brian Buscher reached on an error. Ishikawa, thinking he had third base easily missed manager Dave Machemer's instructions to slide. Rather than runners on the corners with nobody out, the Defenders had one out and a runner on first. The Defenders would not recover. In the 6th and 7th innings the Sea Dogs added two more runs and would finished a 4-0 two-hit win. Phil Seibel worked five innings to pick up his 2nd win, and Edgar Martinez and Mike Bumatay finished the effort, throwing a scoreless inning apiece.
The Defenders head to Harrisburg on Tuesday after a day off and will turn to Matt Palmer, the league leader in ERA. The right-hander is 4-2 and will face a Harrisburg starter to be determined. The three game set and six game road trip will begin Tuesday with a 6:35 first pitch.
Eastern League Stories from June 4, 2006
- Portland defense overcomes Connecticut - Connecticut Defenders
- BaySox drop double header to Rock Cats - Chesapeake Baysox
- B-Mets finish homestead with a loss - Binghamton Rumble Ponies
- Thunder fall to Reading in 9th, 7-6 - Trenton Thunder
- Harrisburg Senators game notes - Harrisburg Senators
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