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KANNAPOLIS — The Boll Weevils could have used a jump start Wednesday night.
Piedmont never popped its clutch at Fieldcrest Cannon Stadium, where it dropped a 4-1 SAL decision to Columbus and lost for the fourth time in five games.
“We were flat,” manager Greg Legg explained after the Weevils (55-30) fell to 8-6 in the second half. “Maybe we’re getting tired. It’s a long haul. Some of these guys have never played a full season. All of a sudden they’re in their 80th, 90th game and they’ve never played that much.”
Losing pitcher Brett Myers (9-3), who squandered a chance to become the league’s first 10-game winner, wasn’t buying that excuse.
“Everybody goes through losing streaks sometimes,” said the 19-year old righthander. “Baseball is a game of failure. The best hitters in the world fail seven out of 10 times. But we’ll play again tomorrow and there’s another game the day after that. We didn’t get the big hits tonight, but we are going to win again.”
The Weevils outhit Columbus 10-9, but left 11 runners on base — eight of them in scoring position. Despite that, it was Myers’ erratic first inning that best told this story. He walked the first two RedStixx batters, then surrendered back-to-back-to-back seeing-eye ground ball singles that dumped Piedmont in a 3-0 hole.
“The first inning wasn’t the best I’ve ever had,” he said. “I didn’t have my command and was behind every hitter. It’s just something I have to figure out so it doesn’t happen again.”
Myers nearly escaped with minimal damage before being sucker-punched by fate. Trailing by a run, he induced Columbus cleanup hitter Tommy Bost to bounce a likely double-play ball to Weevils’ second-baseman Brian Hitchcox. But the ball hit the infield lip, took a bad hop and sailed into right-field for a run-scoring single.
“It kicked straight over my head,” said Hitchcox. “If we could have turned two right there, that would have changed the whole inning. After that we were playing catch-up the rest of the night.”
The Weevils never did tee off against winning pitcher Kyle Denney, a 22-year old righthander from Oklahoma. In six innings he struck out five and recorded nine ground ball outs.
“He’s nothing special — an average pitcher for this league,” said Piedmont’s Marlon Byrd, the SAL’s top run-producer with 66 RBIs. “We’re just not swinging the bats right now. That’s gonna change. We could come back and win 10 straight with this team.”
Byrd delivered the Weevils’ lone run when he pumped a third-inning double to the wall in left-center. Hitchcox had Piedmont’s only other extra-base hit, a lost-in-the-lights bloop double to center in the sixth.
“We didn’t play a bad game tonight,” said Legg. “It was just one of those games where we couldn’t get anything going offensively. We didn’t get the key hit when we needed it.”
They did get an electrifying finishing kick from Myers, who retired 13 of the last 15 men he faced and had two eighth-inning strikeouts.
“I quit overthrowing the ball and started hitting my spots,” explained Myers, who lost for the first time since May 28. “All I wanted to do was get people out and give my team a chance to win.”
NOTES: Columbus improved to 5-9 in the second half and 47-38 overall. ... Piedmont’s Jay Sitzman stole his 39th base of the season in the last of the seventh. Moments later he was nailed at third trying to swipe his 40th. ... Sitzman also made the defensive play of the game when he crashed into the left-field wall and made leaping catch to rob Nate Grindel of a third-inning home run. ... When informed of the Weevils’ impressive overall won-loss mark, Myers called out: “No one in the bigs has that record.”
The series concludes tonight when Piedmont’s Franklin Perez (4-3, 3.28 ERA) opposes Phil Rosengren (2-2, 5.21) in a battle of
righthanders.
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