Fort Wayne Wizards at Dayton Dragons
April 24th, 2004
| Fort Wayne |
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7 |
11 |
2 |
| Dayton |
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0 |
1 |
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E-Valenzuela, Bochy, Dickerson, Hawk, LOB FW-12, DAY-4, 2B-Baker, Pickens, Macias 2, Ciriaco, 3B-Ramos, HR-Bolivar (Bonine/6th/solo), Himes (Bonine/2nd/solo), SB-Walhbrink, Ciriaco
HBP-Wahlbrink (Till), Pickens (Till), Morton (Till), SO-Wahlbrink 2, Valenzuela, Pickens, Macias, Bochy, Morton 2, Dickerson, Bolivar, Votto, Smith 4, Hudson, Fry 3, Hernandez 2, Perez, BB-Baker, Valenzuela, Bochy, Ciriaco, Dickerson, Bolivar
T-2:38, A-8,609
Dayton Daily News
by Marc Katz
Fort Wayne's Wizards had two famous names in their lineup, but didn't necessarily need them to beat the Dayton Dragons at Fifth Third Field on Saturday night.
Fernando Valenzuela Jr. batted fourth and played first base and Greg Bochy hit seventh and played third.
Each drew a walk and Valenzuela also drove in a run and scored another during a 7-2 victory over the Dragons played in front of 8,609.
Valenzuela is the son of 1981 National League Rookie of the Year and Cy Young Award winner Fernando Valenzuela. Bochy is the son of former major league catcher and current San Diego Padres manager Bruce Bochy.
"I was around a lot of players when I was growing up." said Valenzuela, like his father a left, "but my dad let me find my own way. He never pushed me to play. He never even enrolled me in Little League. But he was always supportive of what I wanted to do."
Valenzuela who pitched when he was young but long ago switched to a position player, played a UNLV and was a 10th round draft choice by the Padres last year. He was hitting .275 with no homers and five RBIs at game time.
Bochy, who also catches bit, attended Cal Poly before being drafted by the Padres in the 36th round two years ago. He was hitting .238 with no homers and three RBIs this early season. He grew up under circumstances similar to Valenzuela.
"I've been around (baseball) so long, I always wanted to play." Bochy said, "After school was out in the summer, I used to take trips with my dad."
Two other Wizards took trips around the bases in the first inning as Dayton starter Brock Till lost his control for the first time. He hit two and allowed two hits. In the third he added a third hit batter, a walk and three more hits for three runs.
Dayton's runs came on homers by Ben Himes in the second and Luis Boliver in the sixth, although the Himes homer was costly. He slipped on damp grass heading to first, fell and sprained his left wrist. He was taken out of the game and X-rays were negative.
Counting the homer, Himes was hitting .333 over his last six games.
"I feel really good (at the plate)," Himes said, "This (sprained wrist) is a bummer, Hopefully, I'll be out only 3-4 days."
Even fleet centerfielder Chirs Dickerson had trouble with the grass, slipping trying to make a diving catch in the first that allowed Peeter Ramos a tripl eon what should have been a single.