West Michigan WhiteCaps at South Bend SilverHawks
April 12th, 2004
| West Michigan |
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0 |
1 |
0 |
|
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
1 |
8 |
2 |
| South Bend |
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0 |
1 |
0 |
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0 |
0 |
0 |
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2 |
0 |
X |
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|
3 |
9 |
2 |
E-Sanchez, McKinney, Murillo, Muegge, LOB WM-8, SB-5, 2B-Sanchez, Frazier, SB-Blue, McKinney, Frazier, CS-Blue, Giarratano
T-2:25, A-1,474
South Bend Tribune
by Forrest Miller
Hand warmers, toe warmers, sterno cans under the bench to keep your fanny warm, between innings trips to the dressing room to run warm water over your fingers, all gimicks that pitchers use to fight the cold.
"It could be worse," noted San Diego native Alex Cremidan, who Monday collected his second save as the South Bend SilverHawks won their fourth without a loss, 3-1 over West Michigan.
"If you want to play baseball, you have to make the adjustments for this weather," added Cremidan, the last of four South Bend pitchers.
Even the fans were rewarded. Those among the original 1,474 who stuck it out to the finish as the temperature dipped to 37 degrees recieved a free ticket to a future game.
"I think the cold weather bothers hitters more than the pitchers," commented South Bend pitching coach Jeff Pico
Danny Muegge, Jared Liebeck, Aric LeClair and Cremidan combined for 12 strikeouts while walking only two. Liebeck , who struck out four of the six batters he faced, was the winning pitcher thans to two unearned runs in the seventh inning.
"Liebeck is a guy who can throw three pitches for strikes," said South Bend manager Tony Perezchica.
The SilverHawks have never trailed at the end of an inning all season, although on Saturday and again Monday they trailed momentarily at the end of the top half of an inning.
West Michigan scored in the second inning on a hit by Rich Burgos and a double by Danilo Sanchez. But the Hawks quickly tied the score in their half when Alex Frazier doubled and scored on Augie Murillo's single.
Muegge, the South Bend starter was on a 90 pitch count limit and used up 46 of them in two innings. he finished with 86 in five.
"If he hadn't thrown as many, he probably could have stuck around a little longer," said Perezchica, "But he kept us in the game, and pitched out of james. That's what he needed to do."
South Bend recieved a break when West Michigan right fielder Garth McKinney dropped Miguel Montero's fly ball to open the seventh inning.
Murillo's single sent Montero to third. After on out, an infield squibber to the left of the pitchers' mound by Carlos Gonzalez scored Montero. Emilio Bonifacio followed with another infield hit before a hit by Mike Goss drove in Murillo.
An exceptional catch by WhiteCaps centerfielder Vince Blue off the bat of Tila Reynolds ended the inning.
South Bend had several defensive gems. Montero, the catcher threw out two would be WhiteCaps runners trying to steal. Jeff Cook made a fine inning ending catch against the left field wall to get Muegge out of a first inning jam. And Murillo made a fine stab at third basee to throw out Sanchez in the fourth inning.
Brian Santo, the second of four West Michigan pitchers, was the victim of South Bend's two unearned runs int eh seventh and took the loss.