SAL1 Lexington Legends

West Virginia Spoils Legends Night

Published on August 27, 2007 under South Atlantic League (SAL1)
Lexington Legends News Release


For five innings, Bud Norris looked to be on his way towards making Legends history. In the sixth, however, the only thing that was history was his chance to beat the West Virginia Power.

Matt LaPorta came to the plate and hit a towering three-run home run to break a scoreless tie and lead the Power to a 6-3 victory over Lexington at Applebee's Park in the first game of a two-game series.

Norris (2-8) cruised through the first five innings, giving up three hits while striking out a season-high 10 batters. The club record is 12, which was reached by three different pitchers.

Norris, whose fastball frequently touched 95 mph, fanned seven batters in the first three innings, at one point recording six consecutive outs on strikeouts. After not getting any in the fourth inning, he struck out the side in order in the fifth.

From there he got into trouble. With one out in the sixth, Norris gave up a single to Chuck Caufield and walked Andy LeFave to bring up LaPorta, who sent a 1-0 pitch into the left-field bleachers to give the Power a 3-0 lead and end Norris' night and string of three consecutive quality starts.

Norris was lifted for Brian Hallberg, who promptly gave up a solo home run to Taylor Green before getting out of the inning.

The Legends attempted a rally in the seventh when they loaded the bases with one out. After a strikeout from Nick Moresi, Ronald Ramirez hit a two-out bloop single to no-man's land in short right field, scoring two and cutting the lead to 4-2. Eric Taylor struck out to end the threat.

West Virginia added two insurance runs in the eighth. Hallberg gave up a single to LeFave and hit LaPorta to lead off the inning. Santo Luis came in to relieve Hallberg and hit Green to load the bases with nobody out. The next batter, John Alonso, hit a chopper up the middle to score two and make it 6-2.

Lexington countered in the eighth with a leadoff 438-foot blast from Koby Clemens over the left-field bleachers to cement the final score.

The loss overshadowed an impressive Legends debut for Andrew Darnell, who was recently called up from Greeneville (Tenn.). In his first at-bat, Darnell hit a ground ball through the left side for a single. He finished the game 2-for-4 with two singles and two strikeouts.

The Legends scattered 12 hits, 11 of which were singles, but struggled to bring runners home, partly due to baserunning mistakes. Ramirez and Ralphie Henriquez were each picked off by Alex Perierd, and Taylor was caught stealing. The Legends also left the bases loaded in the fourth inning without scoring.

Ramirez went 2-for-4 with a walk and two RBI for the Legends. Darnell, Henriquez and Drew Holder also recorded two-hit nights. Every Legend batter but Moresi collected a hit.

LaFave went 3-for-4 with two runs scored and Alonso went 3-for-4 with two RBI for the Power.

Check out the Lexington Legends Statistics

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South Atlantic League Stories from August 27, 2007


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