06/22/06
Tigers fall hard at home
Tri-City rallies in sixth, defeats Oneonta, 11-4
2006 ONEONTA TIGERS
By P.J. Harmer
Staff Writer
ONEONTA — Wednesday’s New York-Penn L
| | | Star photo by Julie Lewis
Oneonta’s Jeffrey Kunkel hits a flyball to shallow left field during the second inning of Wednesday’s New York-Penn League game against the Tri-City ValleyCats at Damaschke Field. Kunkel ended up on second after Tri-City shortstop Tim Torres dropped the ball. |
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eague home opener at Damaschke Field featured a hit parade.
But the Oneonta Tigers were more like spectators in this one.
The Tri-City ValleyCats finished with 17 hits, including six in a six-run sixth inning, to earn an 11-4 victory over the O-Tigers in front of 1,220 fans.
"They dropped that big inning on us and it didn’t seem like things went well for us," O-Tigers manager Tom Br[an error occurred while processing this directive]ookens said. "They hit some balls hard. We had some balls where maybe we could have made a play, but we didn’t. It seems like once a team throws a big inning on you, it gets contagious and everyone on the club starts hitting."
The inning spoiled the professional debut of Chris Cody, whose parents graduated from Davenport. With friends and family in the stands, Cody allowed one earned run on two hits in three innings. He struck out two and walked one in a no-decision.
"It was definitely something I’m not going to forget any time soon," said Cody, who had a no-hitter through 2 2/3 innings. "I was happy I could go out there and get some hitters out and kind of pitch my gameplan. Unfortunately, we came out on the downside of the game, but we have a lot of games to play."
Cody finished with 38 pitches, including 22 for strikes.
"I like the way Cody threw and thought he gave us three good innings," Brookens said. "That’s a plus coming out of this."
Tri-City took control in the sixth inning. With the score tied at 1, back-to-back singles from Eric Taylor and Andy Kroeker put runners on first and third. After relief pitcher Brendan Wise struck out Drew Holder, Cesar Quintero singled to right to score Taylor.
Reliever Randon Bierd then took over, but things got worse for Oneonta. Nathan Warrick loaded the bases with an infield single before Tim Torres hit a two-run single to center for a 3-1 lead.
"It was a tight game and we just put a couple things together," Tri-City manager Gregg Langbehn said. "I was getting a little concerned. It was first and third with one out, and I thought we just had to put the ball in play. Fortunately for us, we got a couple pitches to hit and we drove them."
Warrick and Torres then pulled off a double steal to put runners on second and third before Nick Moresi was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Jhon Florentino then flew out to center field to score Warrick and move Torres to third.
Tri-City followed with its second double-steal of the inning as Moresi took second and Torres stole home on the throw down. Moresi made it to third on a throwing error from catcher Jeffrey Kunkel.
"We have some speed," Langbehn said. "We have some guys who can create some problems on the bases and we’re going to try and use that to our advantage."
Chris Johnson closed the scoring in the inning with a sacrifice fly to left.
Oneonta had six hits, led by Brennan Boesch’s 3-for-4 performance. Boesch, Detroit’s third-round draft pick, had two doubles, a home run and three RBIs. His homer was a two-run shot in the bottom of the eighth inning.
"I signed on Monday, so when I was home I didn’t get to do too much other than hit off the tee and run," Boesch said. "Today, I felt comfortable at the plate and hopefully I can keep the momentum."
Oneonta visits Tri-City at 7 tonight. The Tigers will throw Jeff Gerbe and the ValleyCats will counter with former Oneonta State pitcher Chris Salamida.
The O-Tigers return home at 7 p.m. Friday to open a three-game series with Lowell.
