KANNAPOLIS — The Boll Weevils turned straw into gold Wednesday night at Fieldcrest Cannon Stadium.
Piedmont spent the first half of its 7-6 victory over Macon cleaning up messes best attributed to poor defense and an uneven performance from spot-starter Franklin Perez.
“We were down four runs and it was getting late,” said outfielder Jay Sitzman. “But we didn’t feel like a beaten team. We were just having an off-night. Things don’t go your way all the time.”
Indeed. Piedmont committed three costly errors and Perez allowed 11 baserunners — six on free passes — in five-plus innings. Yet when the fires were all extinguished and the smoke had cleared, the Weevils found themselves celebrating their 11th win in the last 13 games.
“It wasn’t so much that we were losing and they were putting lots of runners on base,” manager Greg Legg complained after division-leading Piedmont (78-39) improved to 31-15 in the second half. “It was how we got behind that bothered me. We were throwing the ball around. We were walking people. It just wasn’t clean.”
Piedmont trailed 3-2 entering the top of the sixth inning when Macon (24-21, 59-57 overall) scored three times and chased 19-year old Perez.
“The walks really hurt him, or he would have pitched deeper into the game,” said Legg. “His control was off but I still had confidence in him. I thought he could get through the sixth and maybe even the seventh.”
Instead he was relieved by eventual winning pitcher Matt Bailie (7-0), who restored order with two innings of solid relief. “Our bullpen is amazing,” said Sitzman, who went 3-for-5 and stole his 47th base. “They always shut the door. They’ve won a lot of games for us.”
This one turned in the last of the sixth when the Weevils sent 10 men to the plate and rallied for five runs — four of them after two batters had been retired. Key hits included run-scoring singles by Ambiorex Reyes and Sitzman that trimmed the deficit to 6-5. The clincher was delivered by all-star Marlon Byrd, who punched a two-out, two-run single to right against lefty reliever Richard Powalski.
“He went away from me early in the count, then came back inside,” Byrd said after extending his hitting streak to nine games. “When it got to three-and-one, I was looking for an outside pitch. He threw away it and I went with it. I don’t know any lefties who would come inside to me in that situation.”
Macon threatened to tie the score in each of the last three innings. In the seventh Ryan Lehr bounced a leadoff double down the left-field line and advanced to third on a flyout. Bailie escaped by fanning Asdrubal Oropeza and Jameme Leal.
An inning later Pat Manning drew a leadoff walk from Piedmont’s Chris Keelin, moved to second on a sacrifice and to third on a groundout. The Braves’ rally was squelched when leftfielder Byrd made a spectacular running catch near the foul line to rob Keoni DeRenne of an extra-base hit.
Finally in the ninth, Keelin yielded a one-out single to Lehr, a .300 hitter with decent speed. Legg quickly summoned hard-throwing southpaw Mark Outlaw, who promptly induced Nick Crocker to line into a game-ending double play by Nate Espy.
“From about the sixth inning on it was our game to win,” said Legg. “That was our big inning. If we had gone down 1-2-3 in the sixth, that probably would have knocked us out. But we didn’t. These guys are pretty good fighters. They haven’t given up all year.”
n
NOTES: Perez started in place of 10-game winner Ryan Madson, who has an inflamed right thumb. Legg hopes the righthander can rejoin the rotation on Friday. ... Sitzman boosted his team-leading batting average to .327. He entered play as the SAL’s fourth-best hitter. ... Piedmont has hit only two home runs in eight August games. ... With Jorge Padilla (heel) and Shomari Beverly (hip) on the disabled list, the Weevils will receive switch-hitting outfielder Dan O’Neill from Batavia in time for tonight’s game against Macon. Matire Franco (8-5, 3.92 ERA) opposes the Braves’ Matt Butler (11-5, 103 strikeouts) in a dual of righthanders.
Today's News