Prairie Dogs get back on track

June 14, 2012 - North American League (NAmL)
Abilene Prairie Dogs News Release


FORTWORTH, TX - One team was sputtering. It had just been swept in a double header at home, lost three of its previous four games, and undergone another batch of roster moves. The other was scorching hot. It was riding a three game win streak and had soared atop the division standings with 10 wins in 12 tries. However, recent history was tossed away on Thursday night as the Prairie Dogs pieced together one of their best performances of the season on the way to 6-3 victory in Fort Worth.

The first two innings were a breeze for both right-handed starters as both Abilene's Billy Petrick and Fort Worth righty Blake Nation faced seven batters each. But the Prairie Dogs used their best two-out rally of the season to strike first in the third.

After Zach Welch and Eddie Browne fanned to begin the frame, leadoff batter Adam De La Garza was plunked with a pitch, and Jason Martin singled. With two runners aboard, Wilson Batista slashed a two-run double into the right-centerfield gap to boost the Dogs to a 2-0 advantage. The next batter was Kyle Nichols who looped a shallow fly into right-field. But after second baseman neither C.J. Beatty nor right-fielder R.J. Harris could track it down, the ball dropped in for a run-scoring single, and the Prairie Dogs grabbed hold of a 3-0 lead.

As Petrick continued to saw through the most dangerous lineup in the league, the Prairie Dogs continued to chew up Nation and the Cats. Alex Guthrie, who flew from San Francisco to meet the club in Fort Worth hours before first pitch, not only played in the first professional game of his career on Thursday evening, but the third baseman also parked his first career homer, a solo shot to left in the fourth.

But the Prairie Dogs were unsatisfied with the four-run advantage. They added a tally in the fifth when Nick Ochoa - playing in his home town - drove in Joe Weik with a grounder through the left side of the infield. And the Dogs strung together another run in the sixth inning when Zach Welch scored on Jason Martin's R.B.I. double to make it a 6-0 ballgame.

All the while, Petrick was steamrolling through six innings. The 6'7" righty coughed up only three singles as the game moved into the seventh. Petrick got the first man he faced in the home seventh on a weak grounder to third. But a Brandon Jones single followed by Beatty's double pumped in the first Cats' run of the game.

Petrick responded by striking out R.J. Harris for the second out of the inning - his seventh strikeout in the game.

After Gabe Memmert walked, catcher Derek Marshall stepped to the right-handed batters box with two outs and two on and dribbled a slow grounder up the third base line. Guthrie charged in and was unable to make a clean play. The ground ball, which was initially ruled an error but later overturned and went in the books as a base hit, scored the second Fort Worth run of the night.

Petrick then plunked leadoff man Randall Thorpe to load the bases. With a four run lead and the tying run coming to the plate, Bobby Brown called for Scott Vander Weg. The righty from Denver initially compounded the problem by hitting John Dziomba with a pitch to force in the third run and make the score 6-3. But Vander Weg fanned the next batter he faced to end the inning and strand the tying runs on base.

Ray Silva, the newest Prairie Dog, emerged from the bullpen in the bottom of the ninth and locked down his first save as a member of the club by retiring three of the four men he faced.

The Prairie Dogs will continue their four game series in Fort Worth when game number two gets underway at 7:05 on Friday night. Hear the game on 106.9 KLGD and online at abileneprairiedogs.com beginning with the pre-game show at 6:55.



North American League Stories from June 14, 2012


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