EL1 Chesapeake Baysox

Walk-off balk wins it for Baysox

Published on June 22, 2006 under Eastern League (EL1)
Chesapeake Baysox News Release


June 22, 2006 - On a hot, sticky, Thursday evening in Bowie two Orioles prospects made their AA debut. Both Dustin Yount, son of Hall of Famer Robin "The Kid" Yount, and Bryan Bass, the Orioles 1st round draft pick in 2001 were called up from Frederick to swap the places of Tripper Johnson and Mario Delgado, who were relegated to Class A Frederick.

Former #1 draft pick, Beau Hale, another former 1st round draft pick, made his second start for the Baysox this season and would last all of six innings, striking out four and surrendering just one run to lower his season ERA to 1.73.

Batting second in the lineup, Bass got his first AA hit - a hot shot to third baseman Matt Moses - in the 1st inning, but was stranded as Leo Daigle and Tony Alvarez went down swinging.

Yount's first at-bat came in the bottom of the 2nd inning as the 9th round pick fouled off a number of balls before flying out down the left field line.

The Baysox scored first for the 30th time this season as Noah Hall led off the 2nd inning by drawing a walk and then stole second base. Rayner Bautista then singled Hall home for the first run of the game. The Baysox lead would hold for only two innings as New Britain tied it up in the 5th inning on back-to-back doubles.

Daigle corrected that problem though in the bottom of the 6th with a one out solo shot off the end off his bat that cleared the wall in right center. Immediately following Daigle's blast, Tony Alvarez drilled the first pitch he saw to the exact same location of Daigle's shot but just one foot shy of back-to-back home runs. Alvarez legged out a triple on the play but Hall would go down swinging the lumber and "The Kid's" kid was rung up on strike three to ensure the Baysox only got one run in the inning.

But taking a 2-1 lead into the wouldn't be safe enough as reliever Brian Forystek gave up a game-tying home run to Trent Oeltjen in the 7th.

Closer Marino Salas entered the game in the 9th inning and with a man on third and two outs and induced Trent Oeltjen into grounding out to Yount.

Hall blooped a single into left field to start the home 9th and then stole second during Yount's at bat. The throw from the Rock Cats catcher sailed high and into center field allowing Hall to hustle into third base. Ryan Hubele and then pinch-hitter Jeff Fiorentino both drew intentional walks. With the game winning run just 90 feet away and the bases loaded, Cory Keylor strolled to the plate to pinch hit for Pete Shier. New Britain reliever Tristan Crawford didn't even get a pitch off to Keylor but instead balked in the winning run as the Baysox pull out a stunner 3-2 in front of 3,929.

The majority of people in attendance, including manager Don Werner, were shocked and surprised at the way the game ended. In talking about the way the game ended, Werner said, "That was the first one I've seen and I didn't even see what he [Crawford] did but I was talking to Scotty McGregor and he said he [Crawford] definately balked and so we'll take it!"

ON DECK: New Britain and Bowie face each other tomorrow night in the series finale. RHP Nick Blackburn will go for the Rock Cats and Bowie will throw RHP Brian Finch.

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Eastern League Stories from June 22, 2006


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