KANNAPOLIS ~ There’s a wild card race going on, but the Piedmont Boll Weevils’
bats were tame at Fieldcrest Cannon Stadium here Saturday night. Two Asheville pitchers combined for a
three-hitter and 16 strikeouts as the Tourists blanked Piedmont 10-0 in a South Atlantic
League contest. The loss kept the Boll Weevils a half-game back of the Hickory Crawdads in
the wild card race for the SAL playoffs.
Hickory is 61-64 after losing 6-2
to the Macon Braves last night. Piedmont is 60-64 heading into today’s 2:05 p.m.
contest with Asheville.
``We just looked like we were flat
today. For a team that’s fighting for a playoff spot, we’re not a playoff team
the way we played tonight,’’ said Piedmont manager Ken Oberkfell.
Asheville, aided by two Piedmont
errors, scored five runs in the top of the first inning, four of them unearned off Boll
Weevils starter Francisco Montero.
``These guys out here ought to be
embarrassed,’’ said Oberkfell, point toward his team’s locker room. ``To
me, they put a lax effort out there on the field. We fell behind 5-0 early. We
weren’t playing well. The first inning, we didn’t catch the ball. He (Montero)
hurt himself by making an error, but he battled after that.’’
Fast Juan Pierre opened the game
for Asheville with an infield single and his 57th stolen base. Montero struck out Javier
Colina, but nothing went right for him after that. Rene Reyes singled home Pierre, then
Montero made an error on Erik Johnson’s hard grounder up the middle. On the next
play, Johnson was safe at second on shortstop Anderson Machado’s throwing error after
Matt Holiday’s grounder. Choo Freeman’s two-run double and Luis Landetta’s
two-run single capped off the five-run inning.
That was all the runs starter
Jason Jennings (2-2) of the Tourists needed. The right-hander worked five innings, allowed
only two singles and struck out eight batters, increasing his season strikeout total to 52
in only 42 and two-thirds innings.
``Their guy pitched a pretty good
game, considering they’ve got the worst statistics in pitching (4.73 earned run
average), and they threw 16 strikeouts,’’ said Oberkfell. ``I was impressed with
their pitching. ... He (Jennings) threw better tonight than he did when we faced him up
there. He looked like he had a little bit more on his fast ball. He had good control, but
how many strikeouts did we have looking? We had 16 and half of them were probably looking.
It’s not an automatic weapon, you’ve got to swing it.’’
Reliever Ryan Cameron, another
right-hander, also struck out eight Boll Weevils over the last four innings while allowing
just one hit.
``A ball game’s nine
innings, and we looked like we quit after the first inning. They ought to be embarrassed.
If they’re not, then they don’t have the desire to play the game, in my
mind,’’ Oberkfell added.
The Tourists, who came in with the
league’s best batting average, .276, scored four of their final five runs on three
homers to left field ~ Juan Uribe’s two-run shot in the sixth and solos by Colina in
the seventh and Freeman in the eighth.
``They’ve got a good hitting
club. They put the ball in play; they swing the bat,’’ said Oberkfell of the
Colorado Rockies farm club.
Freeman, one of the Rockies’
top young prospects wound up 2-for-4 with a homer, a double and three runs batted in.
Uribe was also 2-for-4 with a homer and a triple.
``He (Freeman) is a pretty good
player. He plays a good center field and swings the bat real well,’’ said the
Piedmont manager. The 19-year-old native of Dallas, Tex., is batting .277 with 11 homers
and 58 RBIs. He’s also struck out 122 times in 429 at-bats.
``The guy that impresses me more
than anybody on their team is that second baseman, Colina, and Pierre. ... Colina (.298
hitter) is an outstanding second baseman. Pierre (.317 hitter) is a great leadoff hitter.
He gets on base ~ puts the ball in play,’’ said Oberkfell. ``They don’t
cheat themselves. They swing the bat.’’
n
NOTES: It was CT Communications
Baseball Legends Night, featuring Hall of Famers Gaylord Perry and Ferguson Jenkins,
with an attendance of 3,177. The two former stars pitched in a pre-game softball contest,
then signed autographs. ... Two other former major leaguers, Dallas Green and Manny
Trillo, were also at Fieldcrest Cannon. Green, former manager of the Cubs, Mets and
Yankees, is the senior advisor to the general manager for the Philadelphia Phillies, while
Trillo is the club’s roving minor league infield instructor. ... Bo the Weevil, the
Piedmont mascot who suffered a broken jaw, broken nose and other facial injuries when hit
by a bat while running the bases last month, made a triumphant return to big cheers
in an ambulance. ... Southpaw Greg Kubes (11-11, 2.76 ERA) will pitch for Piedmont today,
when CT Communications All Church Day will be held. Former University of North Carolina
and NBA basketball star Bobby Jones will give his Christian testimony from 1:35 to 1:50
p.m., then will sign autographs for an hour. |
Today's News