06/07/2007

Record-Eagle/Tyler Sipe
Beach Bums starter Robbie McClellan struck out five and gave up six hits in seven shutout innings Wednesday.

Bums snap skid

McClellan shuts down Kings' bats

BY MARK URBAN

murban@record-eagle.com

TRAVERSE CITY — A five-game losing streak isn't anything a whole bunch of zeroes can't solve.

The Traverse City Beach Bums ended their slide on Wednesday at Wuerfel Park, posting the first shutout of their Frontier League season, 6-0 over the Kalamazoo Kings.

Robbie McClellan (2-0) tossed the first seven innings for Traverse City (5-9). Jeff Williams and Jack Nelson each went one inning to close it out.

"We needed it, especially the way we went about it,” Bums manager Jon Cahill said. "We had a great game by Robbie and we had some great hitting. Quality pitching, timely hitting and good defense usually wins ball games.

"We finally put a whole game together.”

Despite the zero in the run column for Kalamazoo, the Kings had plenty of scoring opportunities in the contest.

Kalamazoo banged out eight hits — six against McClellan — but left 10 runners on base.

"They had runners on about every inning and in scoring position,” said McClellan, who struck out five and walked two. "I just tried to make good pitches when there were runners in scoring position and rely on my defense. I don't think I had my best stuff, but it was good enough to get by.”

Traverse City pushed three runs across in the seventh inning against Kalamazoo reliever James Lewis to break the contest open.

The seventh started with Brad Vericker getting hit by a pitch. Sam Orr followed with a single and Jeff Vincent followed with a deep drive to center field to knock in Vericker. After an intentional walk to Lance Koenig to load the bases, J.T. Thomas got a bouncer through the right side of the infield to drive in two.

Vincent finished the game with three RBIs, tying a season high for one player. Zack Kalter led the hit parade with three hits while Orr and Vincent had two.

But it was the whole lineup that was able to deliver against Kalamazoo (7-7). Traverse City got a hit or a walk from eight of the nine spots in the batting order.

"You need that,” Cahill said. "You're not going to have the middle of the order hitting every time.”

The Beach Bums went up 3-0 with a pair of runs in the fifth inning.

R.C. Dickerson, making his first start of the season, led off the inning with a walk, took second on a sacrifice bunt by Justin Holmes — who extended his hitting streak to eight with a single leading off the eighth inning — and scored when Kalamazoo left fielder Simon Williams let a single by Kalter get away from him.

TC then loaded the bases on an intentional walk to Vericker and an infield single by Orr. The second run came across when the Kings failed to turn a double play on a ground ball off the bat of Vincent.

Kalamazoo had a threat in the top of the third as Joe Ramos had an infield single, stole second and took third on a groundout. But on a ground ball to first baseman Vericker, Ramos tried to score. But he couldn't dislodge the ball from Koenig despite barreling him over at home.

"That was a big play,” McClellan said. "I think that swung the momentum back in our favor.”

Traverse City struck first, pushing a run across in the bottom of the first inning.

With one out, Kalter singled and took second on a walk to Vericker. With two outs, Vincent ripped a sharp single to right field. Kalamazoo's Jeff Grose made a strong throw to the plate, but Kalter was able to slide around the tag of Kings' catcher Trevor Eastman.

"We had intensity at the start and carried it throughout the game,” Cahill said. "That's something we've been lacking. That's something we can build on going on our six-game road trip.”

"It's nice pitching with a lead because you don't have to be so fine,” McClellan said. "In a 0-0 game it seems like it's more pressure. Then we scored two in the fifth and that really helped a lot.”

Not that McClellan or the Beach Bums needed anything more than that one run in the first.

"Robbie had them off balance with his off-speed stuff,” Cahill said. "He got ahead with his off-speed stuff and he surprised them with his fastball. They're going to get their hits, they're a quality hitting team.

"But Robbie had a nice game plan from the start and stuck through it all the way through.”

The same two teams will meet again today for the first of two at Homer Stryker Field in Kalamazoo, starting at 7:05 p.m. Buddy Klovstad (0-1, 4.85 ERA) will get the start for Traverse City while Mark Kelly (0-0, 0.00) will go to the hill for the Kings.