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EL1 Chesapeake Baysox

Rock Cats Shred \'Sox

August 9, 2008 - Eastern League (EL1)
Chesapeake Baysox News Release


(Bowie, MD) - The Baysox were down two runs before an out was recorded and never came back, dropping Saturday's contest with the Rock Cats, 7-2. Bowie starter Chris Tillman walked Brian Dinkelman then gave up a homerun to Steve Tolleson to begin the game, then settled down and went 6.0 innings, allowing one more run and striking out ten batters. The Baysox had several promising scoring opportunities early on, but could not capitalize.

Bowie picked up a run in the bottom of the first when Sebastien Boucher led off and reached on a fielding error by second baseman Brian Dinkelman. Carlos Rojas walked to put runners on first and second and Matt Wieters looped a single into shallow left field to plate Boucher and cut the New Britain lead to 2-1.

The Baysox had a chance to tie the game in the bottom of the third. With two outs, Jeff Nettles hit an infield single down the third base line. Mike Rodriguez followed with a single to right field and Jonathan Tucker drew a walk to load the bases. Blake Davis came up and hit a fly ball to right field to end the threat.

First baseman Ryan Finan led off the bottom of the fourth with a shot down the right field line that caromed hard off the wall. Finan motored all the way around third base, going for the inside-the-park homerun, but a spectacular effort by second baseman Brian Dinkelman thwarted him. Dinkelman raced into right field, collected the ball, and fired home to beat Finan's headfirst slide by a fraction. The big first baseman has never hit an inside-the-park homerun, "Not professionally, no. He threw two fastballs to start out and then he hung a changeup. I caught it out front a little bit but I knew I caught it pretty good. It hit off the wall and once I saw it kick hard I wasn't thinking inside-the-park but I was running as fast as I can, which isn't real fast anyways and I get to third and saw Brad backing up so I thought OK, maybe I'm going. I thought I got my hand in there on the slide but I couldn't tell, the timing was so close."

After the first two hitters, Tillman found his groove. He has been feeling better on the mound recently, and tonight's effort was no exception, "I felt good about it. I came out kinda lazy in my first inning with a couple mechanical issues holding me back but I'm glad I made the adjustment, I threw a pretty good game after that. That's the best feeling in the world, whether you win or lose, is getting out of jams. I'm glad I got out of them, I was happy with myself."

The Rock Cats hung one more run on Tillman in the top of the sixth. Brian Dinkelman led off with a bunt single and Matt Wieters threw wide of first, allowing Dinkelman to take second. Steve Tolleson laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt that Tillman fielded but had no throw, making it the second bunt single in a row. Dinkelman advanced to third base on the play and came in to score on a base hit by Dustin Martin. Tillman then loaded the bases before ending the inning with two consecutive strikeouts.

The Baysox got one run back in the bottom of the sixth on a solo homerun by Jonathan Tucker. The towering shot struck the left-field foul pole three-quarters of the way to the top. It was Tucker's first career foul-pole shot, "That's a first for me, I did it in BP one time, but no that was a first for me. When I first hit it and started running I thought it was going to stay true, then as I kept going it looked like it might bend foul a little, but I knew I'd hit it hard enough. I feel like I get pitched to the same way no matter where I am in the lineup. DH'ing is difficult since you're not on the field and you can't get a flow to the game. If you make an out, you have to go and sit in the dugout for three innings and think about it. I've been able to DH more this year than I've done before so I think I'm doing a better job of staying involved in the games."

Ryan Keefer came on for Tillman and worked two shutout innings, allowing three hits and striking out two batters.

The Rock Cats pulled away in the top of the ninth inning when Chad Thall came on to take over for Keefer. With two outs, Steve Tolleson hit an RBI double to drive in Drew Butera and Dustin Martin singled to put runners on first and third. David Winfree put the Rock Cats out of reach with one swing, driving a three-run homerun over the wall in left to make the score 7-2 New Britain.

With the loss, the Baysox move to 70-52, two games back of Akron for first place in the Southern Division. The Baysox look to take three out of four from the Rock Cats Sunday as RHP Zach Clark (1-1, 4.03 ERA) goes up against Rock Cats RHP Jeff Manship (1-5, 4.50 ERA).

Sunday night is Faith Night at Prince George's Stadium and will feature a pregame concert by New Method and Fairgreen. The concert will go from 4-5 p.m. and anyone with a ticket to the game will be admitted in to the concert. Following the game, the Baysox will embark on a three-game road trip in Trenton beginning Tuesday before returning home to face the Binghamton Mets for three games beginning Friday, August 15th.

The Bowie Baysox are out to Beat The Streaks in their 16th season as the "AA" affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles. The Baysox have not reached the postseason since 1997 and have never reached the Eastern League Championship. Playoff tickets are available beginning August 12th; tickets for all remaining regular season games are available on www.baysox.com or by calling the box office at (301) 464-4865.

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