07/28/2006

Strange split for Bums, Wild Things

Teams complete game suspended nearly month ago

BY JEFF PEEK

jpeek@record-eagle.com

Record-Eagle/Douglas Tesner
Traverse City first baseman Kevin Gergel hangs on to a pop-up in front of catcher Clay Blevins.

TRAVERSE CITY — Strange things were afoot at Wuerfel Park on Thursday night.

First, it took the Traverse City Beach Bums four weeks to beat the Washington Wild Things 6-5 in the first game of a Frontier League baseball doubleheader. The game was actually the completion of a June 28 suspended game, which meant that Brad Vericker was credited with a two-run homer without even playing and Doug Garcia extended his hitting streak to 20 games — more than two weeks after it ended at 19.

Then Washington defeated the Bums 6-2 in a seven-inning nightcap in which TC pitcher Robbie McClellan and Wild Things second baseman Kyle Werman left with shoulder injuries and infield umpire Bruce Doane departed after being hurt diving out of the way of a line drive. That forced pitchers Tony Casoli of the Beach Bums and Tom Cochran of Washington to fill in as umps for the final three innings.

Isn't minor league baseball grand?

"It was one odd night. One weird thing after another," said Beach Bums manager Jeff Isom. "You never know what's going to happen in the Frontier League.

"I thought (Casoli and Cochran) did a great job. That's the best umpiring I've seen all year long. They've got a future in this game if they don't make it as players."

Isom called the opener "one of the longest games I've been involved in."

"What was it — a little under a month?" he joked. "At least we got a win out of it."

The same couldn't be said about the nightcap, which slipped away quickly after starting pitcher McClellan left the game with pain in his pitching shoulder.

The right-handed McClellan (3-4), who missed all of the 2005 season following shoulder surgery, didn't even record an out. Lead-off batter Chris Sidick reached base on an error by first baseman Kevin Gergel, then Nick Massari followed with a walk. One pitch later — a ball to Chris Carter — McClellan called for trainer Brian Rosenau, then left the game.

Paul Mezzetta came on and allowed a walk to Carter, a two-run single to Jake Peavy, an RBI single by Mike Arbinger and a run-scoring double play ball before getting out of the inning. By then, Washington held a 4-0 lead and the Bums never got closer than three runs the rest of the way.

Still, Isom was happy with Mezzetta's six-inning performance.

"He did a great job," Isom said. "Our bullpen is thin, and he pitched deep into the game, which is what we needed. He saved our bullpen."

Traverse City (37-22), which trails first-place Chillicothe by a half-game in the Eastern Division standings, got one run back in the second inning when Mike Reese walked, stole second and third and came home on a single by Clay Blevins.

But Washington (33-25) answered in the fourth with a two-run single by Sidick.

Blevins' RBI single in the sixth inning plated Reese with TC's other run.

Patrick Stanley (6-2) notched the win for the Wild Things.

The first game — which began in Pennsylvania but finished 533 miles and 29 days later in Traverse City — started with the Bums clinging to a 2-1 lead

in the bottom of second. TC increased the margin to 5-1 with three runs in the top of the third on RBI singles by Justin Meagher and Doug Garcia and an error that allowed Nick Batkoski to score.

Meagher's second RBI single in the top of the fifth inning made it 6-1 before Washington rallied for one in the fifth on Lance Koenig's RBI single, two in the sixth on Nick Massari's pinch-hit two-run single and one more in the ninth on a sacfirice fly by Koenig.

Bums pitcher Hunter Davis got a pop-up and a strikeout to end the game and notch his fourth save.

Winning pitcher Steve Shippey (6-3) allowed four runs and seven hits in 5 2/3 innings.

Vericker, who did not play Thursday due to a finger injury, hit a two-run homer for Traverse City in the top of the first inning back on June 28, but he didn't receive credit for it until the game was completed.

Garcia, the Bums' centerfielder, rapped a single to extend an earlier 19-game hitting streak to 20. If he had gone hitless, however, the streak would have turned into two shorter streaks of nine and 10 games.

Traverse City and Washington return to action tonight with a single nine-inning game at 7:05 p.m. Matt Squires (6-3, 5.50 ERA) will take the mound for Washington. The Bums will go with Shaun Parker (3-3, 5.66).