07/21/2007

RiverHawks soar past Bums

3-game winning streak snapped

BY MARK URBAN

murban@record-eagle.com

TRAVERSE CITY — After three straight nights of late-inning drama, this was over before the opening act.

Rockford scored five times in the first three innings to spoil the first professional start for Jeff Williams as the Beach Bums dropped a 7-3 decision at Wuerfel Park on Friday.

The win by the RiverHawks came on the heels of three straight victories by Traverse City in its final at-bat, including a 5-4 triumph over Rockford in 10 innings on Thursday.

"There was a lot of drama yesterday,” said a clearly-disappointed Beach Bums' manager Jon Cahill. "We just came out flat. It's hard to come out flat when you have a full house.”

While Rockford (26-27) was getting to Williams early, RiverHawks starter James Cramphin (2-1) was keeping the Beach Bums (22-32) in check. TC had just five hits in 71/3 innings by Cramphin.

"He did a good job changing speeds and hitting his spots,” Bums' left fielder Aaron Garza said. "He had us off balance all night.”

The RiverHawks chased Williams (4-2) in the third inning after loading the bases with no outs on an error, a hit batter and a walk. Rockford then got back-to-back sacrifice flies from Matt Hagen and Brad Dutton off TC reliever Phil Tognetti to lead 5-0.

Rockford pushed three runs across in the second inning. Matt Sauls put the Hawks on the board with a two-out, two-run broken bat flair to left field and Joe Anthonsen followed with a sharp RBI single to left.

"We didn't show up to play today at all,” Cahill said. "We didn't throw strikes. Phil came in and did a nice job.

"But we couldn't do anything offensively and had a lack of discipline at the plate.”

While the RiverHawks were getting their runners around early, the Beach Bums were getting erased on the bases.

Traverse City grounded into double plays in each of the first three innings, and nearly again in the fourth. The Bums also grounded into a twin-killing in the sixth inning against Cramphin, who did walk five.

"We had hitter's counts and were hitting little ground balls to shortstop and second base,” Cahill said.

"That's the game, that's how it goes,” Garza added. "Sometimes you get the breaks, sometimes you don't. That's why we play 96 games.”

Rockford tacked on a run in the top of the seventh inning as Will Henderson led off the frame with a double down the left field line and Alhaji Turay followed with a double down the right field line.

Traverse City didn't get a runner to second base until the bottom of the seventh inning against Cramphin. That was also the frame where the Beach Bums scored.

With one out, Sam Orr hit a roller up the first-base line. Cramphin dove and fielded the ball, but couldn't tag Orr running up the line from his knees. After a walk to Brad Roblin and a fielder's choice, Garza pulled a pitch from Cramphin to right field for a RBI single.

Rockford came right back in the top of the eighth inning to lead 7-1. Anthonsen started the rally with a two-out single back up the middle against Nick Pepper, who came in to pitch the eighth.

Jason James — the leading hitter in the Frontier League — ripped a double to left field. The relay throw from Bums' shortstop Justin Holmes appeared to be in time, but Anthonsen knocked over TC catcher Matt Rademacher and dislodged the ball. Anthonsen scrambled to touch the plate before Rademacher was able to pick up the ball and tag him.

Traverse City scored two runs in the eighth inning after Cramphin was pulled after getting the first out of the inning. Reliever Luke Behning proceeded to walk the first two batters and commit a throwing error to make the score 7-2.

Orr made it 7-3 on a RBI fielder's choice against Jason Baca, who came on after Behning failed to retire a batter.

NOTES: Garza led off the ninth inning against Baca, his former college teammate for two seasons. Garza drew a walk off his Texas State University teammate on five pitches then teased Baca after the game that he was afraid of him. … Traverse City has won four straight games just once this season. The Beach Bums closed out the first half with a three-game sweep of Slippery Rock and opened the second half with a 7-0 shutout of the same Sliders. The Bums had one other three-game winning streak, topping the RiverHawks 6-3 at home on May 28 and following it up with two victories at Rockford, 9-7 and 9-8. … Bums' catcher Rademacher had thrown out four straight runners attempting to steal over three games, then Rockford leadoff hitter Sauls ended that streak by stealing second in the first inning.