BY DAVID SHAW
SALISBURY POST

KANNAPOLIS — Even with an Austin Powers impersonator in the house, the Intimidators never found their mojo Saturday night.

Kannapolis made things easy for visiting Hickory in a 5-0 South Atlantic League loss.

“We played a bad baseball game tonight,” manager Razor Shines explained after the Intimidators were Yeah-Babied to death by 19-year old right-hander Jeff Sharber. “Fundamentally, we weren’t sharp. We didn’t make plays we should have made. We made a lot of mental mistakes, and when you do that on the professional level, usually you’re gonna pay for them.”

The Intimidators (19-21, 66-43 overall) were limited to four singles and shut out for the ninth time this season. They wasted a strong performance by losing pitcher Jim Bullard, the tall southpaw who allowed two earned runs and no walks in 6 23 innings.

“He definitely pitched well enough to win,” said Kannapolis catcher Wally Rosa. “We just didn’t hit for him and we made mental mistakes.”

So on a night when he should have been receiving left-handed compliments for a well-pitched game, all Bullard took home was his first loss of the summer.

“All I can do is control what I do,” said Bullard, a 21-year old drafted out of the University of California-Santa Barbara in June. “These guys swung at a lot of stuff. I was just trying to keep the ball down and they hit a thousand ground balls. I didn’t do anything special.”

Hickory’s Nate McLouth did in the top of the fourth inning. The lefty outfielder drilled a 3-2 pitch over the wall in right-center field for his 10th home run and a 1-0 lead.

“I don’t know if that’s the only mistake he made, but it’s the only one they hit good,” said Shines. “Jim did a great job. He moved the ball in and out and threw his off-speed pitch for a strike when he was behind. He kept us in the ballgame, gave us a chance. When he got into trouble, we just didn’t make plays.”

Trouble arrived in the seventh when Hickory extended its lead to 3-0. One run scored on Manny Mejia’s two-out ground-ball single to left. The other crossed when Kannapolis shortstop Stevie Daniel fielded a bouncer deep in the hole, faked a throw to third and gunned a wild peg that eluded first-baseman Casey Rogowski.

“The safest play was to first anyway,” said Intimidators third-baseman John Lackaff. “(Daniel) looked over, but he realized he had to go the long way. It was a tough ball. Those things are gonna happen in baseball.”

They didn’t happen to winning pitcher Sharber (2-1), who also pitched effectively against Kannapolis in July. He threw eight shutout innings, retired the side in order three times and breezed until the seventh and eighth, when the Intimidators left four men on base.

“I pitched against them here a couple weeks ago here and it was a totally different lineup,” Sharber said after completing his longest stint of the year. “So I just went after them and established a game plan as I went along.”

Sharber threw 19 pitches in the seventh inning and 21 in the eighth, when Kannapolis rallied but failed to score. Shines, a gracious but disappointed loser, had to tip his cap to the youngster from Murfeesboro, Tenn.

“We’ve seen him twice and both times he’s been that good,” he said. “I don’t know what he’s doing against anybody else, but he’s been that good against us. When you can throw your breaking ball for strikes when you’re behind in the count, you’re gonna be successful.”

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NOTES: The shutout was Hickory’s third of the year. ... Bullard (1-1) has struck out 18 batters and walked two in 25 innings. ... Rogowski went 2-for-4 and boosted his average to .290. He leads the team in home runs (12), RBI (56), hits (105) and runs scored (61). ... The Intimidators visit Hickory tonight, Monday and Tuesday before returning home for doubleheaders against Delmarva Wednesday and Thursday. ... “Air-Wave Dave,” a San Antonio DJ told not to quit his day job, entertained the crowd of 3,216 as that suave man of mystery.