A very contriversal call at the end of 14 innings of baseball would decide this game in favor of the Cougars. Brant Colamarino hit a long shot down the right field line that might've gone fair or foul, nobody will ever know for sure. I have heard that it was fair and that it was clearly foul from diffrent people, so I don't know what to say, but in the end we won the game. After the base ump ran out to right field to try to make the correct call on the ball, he would callit foul. Then Cougars hitting coach Eddie Williams went nuts and went after the ump. Soon after that the home plate ump came out to seperate them and then the two umps went out to the outfield to have a little chat about what had just expired. After some talking the home plate ump called it fair. Only after consulting with the Kernels maanger Todd Claus. After that call Claus and his palyers would go balistic while the Cougars players celebrated a hard fought victory in game two of this four game series.
This game would become one of the best games played that I or many others have ever seen at this level. The momentum would swing both ways and at once you had hope, now you had despare. The rollercoaster would continue on the upward spiral for a while then back down, untill the 14th inning. All together in this game there would be nine runs, 25 hits, and three errros.
The Kernels starting pitcher James Holcomb did a great job of getting out of trouble. He went the first eight innings for them and gave up six hits. He only gave up three runs, and walked one. Whenever he needed an out he got a strikeout. He had ten of them. The Cougars wouldn't get a hit untill the fourth inning, that would be quickly erased by an inning ending double play. After that the only inning the Cougars had any assemblance of an attack against Holcmob was the fifth inning when they scored the three runs against him. After that he would retire nine out of the last ten Cougars he would face.
In the fifth the Cougars had Nelson Cruz leading off, he would single to center. Brian Stavisky then singled to center, since the hit and run was on Cruz would get to third. Chris Tritle then lined one to centerfield.Centerfielder Quan Cosby took a chance and dove headlong for the ball and it rolled past him and to the wall. Cruz and Stavisky would scored and Tritle would get a triple. John Suomi singled to center to allow Tritle to score. Suomi would try to steal second and he should've ben safe but the ump didn't agree with him or the fans and that would be the second out. Kory Wayment would strikeout to end the inning.
Besides that inning the Cougars would only get six more baserunners in the whole game. Two of those runners would score, on solo homers in the extra innings. In all the Cougars would strand three of the six runners and one of the other would be the one erased on a double play.
Matt Lynch made his second professional start and his fourth pro appearance, he would pitch five innings of ok ball. He would give up eight hits in those innings. The most important thing though is that he gave up zero runs, and only one walk. Lynch would also strike out three Kernels. He got into trouble early and often giving up hits then somehow working out of the jams and not giving up anything in the all important runs column.
In four out of his five inning the leadoff man would reach and in none of those innings would he get to third base. In the first a double play then a groundout would take cae of the Kernels. In the second inning, Jared Abruzzo lead off with Lynch's only free pass of the night. Matt Abram then lined to center. Caleb Maher popped out to second. Quan Cosby singled to center. With two outs and runners on first and second, Jake Mathis came up to bat. He would pop out to center to end the threat. Jason Sugden and Ransel Melgarejo both singled to center before the first out of the third inning. Erik Aybar then popped out to second for that first out. Alberto Callaspo foul popped out to first. Abruzzo then struck out. More of the same in the fourth for the Kernels, Abram would get on with an infield single to third. Maher would hit then first pitch he saw over the fense to left field. Only one problem for the Kernels, it was foul by twenty feet. He would end up popping out to second for the first out. Cosby singled to left, to put runners on first and second. Mathis lined out to center for the second out. Sugden then struck out to end the inning.
The fifth inning for the Kernels was a turing point in favor of the Cougars, or should I say one of the turning points in the game. Melgarejo lead off by striking out on three pitches. Aybar then lined one down the right field line just past the third baseman. He would end up with a double. Callaspo then singled to right. Aybar went to third. Jared Abruzzo then hit the first pitch he saw to second base, the Cougars would turn a nice 4-6-3 double play to get out of the inning.
The other turning point in the game and something you se maybe once every few years was a nice triple play with some contriversay in the ninth. The Cougars were up three to two, Sugden led off by striking out. Melgarejo then singled to right. He stole on second base. Aybar then flew one to Chris Tritle in left. Tritle tried to one hand it with no probelms, there was only one problem, he dropped the ball. That would put runners on second and third with only one out. Callaspo was then intentionally walked to load the bases. Jared Abruzzo then came up and lined one to center. The centerfielder Marcus McBeth caught the ball and threw home. McBeth has one of the best arms in baseball, so it was interesting to see them try to run on him. Melgarejo tagged up at third and headed towards homeplate. Meanwhile catcher John Suomi was in position to block the plate. The ball and Melgarejo got there at the same time, and there was a collison, Suomi held on, but Melgarejo was called safe. First of all he should've been called out, but that's not were the play would end up. Seeing that there was a play at the plate Callaspo tried to get to second base. Suomi somehow after the collison still had the pressence of mind to get up quickly and throw a perfect strike to second and get the runners there for the second out of the inning. Folks, thats not were it would end either, As the ball was getting closer, and closer to second base, Aybar would try to score. Shortstop John McCurdy then quickly htrew back home, and another collison, this time the ump got the call right and we had an inning ending triple plat. After the inning though the score would be tied at three. After the play Cougars manager Webster Garrison came out to argue the call, mainly because he was right, but oh well. He would get tossed after an animated discussion between him and the ump.
The reason the game was so close at that point was in the seventhinning the Kernels scored two runs. With one out Aybar singled to right. Callaspo then flied to left. Abruzzo hammered atwo run balst to deep right center, it went betweent he bleachers and the right field deck. This was all against Cougars reliever Shawn Kohn. Kohn would then come back and get Abram to strike out to end the inning.
The next opportunity would be the Cougars in the tenth inning. Brian Stavisky led off with a single to right. He would then steal second base and get to third on a bad throw by catcher Abruzzo. With a man on third and nobody out the Cougars lookked to have a golden opportunity to wint he game. Unfortuantly it wouldn't work out. Kernels reliever Jeff Marquez had other ideas about the inning. He would strike out the next three hitters to end the inning. The three were Tritle, Suomi and Wayment. For some strange reason the Cougars had Tritle tring to bunt Stavisky over first of all. What's weirer is they had the bunt sign on even with two strikes and Tritle would end up striking out after fouling off the bunt.Marquez and fellow reliever Ozzie Lugo combined to pitched three innings of shutout ball. Marquez only gave up the one hit and he would strikeout five Cougars.
Cedar Rapids took advantage of the Cougars bullpen in the 13th with three hits and one run to take the lead. With one out Cosby singled to left. Mathis then reached on an infield single to third. Greg Porter would strike out to make it two outs. Melgarejo doubled over the third basemans head and downt he line to allow Cosby to score. Aybar then would line out to third to end the inning.
In the bottom of the inning things weren't looking so good to start things off. Trilte grounded to first and Suomi grounded to second. Beau Craig came off the bench to hit for Kory Wayment and delievered. Craig hit one just inside the right field pole to tie the game at four. Marcus McBeth popped out to center to end the inning.
In the game Francis Gomez realy had a tough game. In the In the sixth with the bases oaded and only one out. Sugden grounded one to short, McCurdy tossed it to second, and the runner Mathis took out Gomez. He was laying ont he grounded for a few minutes, but stayed in the game. In the sixth inning to lead things off, Gomez was hit in the left shoulder by a pitch. He was in obvious pain. Only one problem it was with two strikes and he was called out because he tried to swing as he tried to get out of the way. He would leave the game after that in pain.
Kernels
| Name |
POS |
AB |
R |
H |
RBI |
| Ransel Melgarejo |
RF |
7 |
1 |
4 |
1 |
| Erik Aybar |
SS |
7 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
| Alberto Callaspo |
2B |
5 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
| Jared Abruzzo |
C |
5 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
| Matt Abram |
1B |
6 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
| Caleb Maher |
DH |
50 |
0 |
0 |
| Quan Cosby |
CF |
6 |
1 |
3 |
0 |
| Jake Mathis |
3B |
5 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
| Jason Sugden |
LF |
2 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
| Greg Porter |
PH/LF |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Cougars
| Name |
POS |
AB |
R |
H |
RBI |
| Marcus McBeth |
CF |
6 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Francis Gomez |
2B |
3 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
| J.P. Schmidt |
3B |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| John McCurdy |
SS |
6 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Brant Colamarino |
1B |
5 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
| Nelson Cruz |
RF |
5 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
| Brian Stavisky |
DH |
4 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
| Nick Rogers |
PR/DH |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Chris Tritle |
LF |
5 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
| John Suomi |
C |
5 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
| Kory Wayment |
3B/2B |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Beau Craig |
PH |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
| Jason Basil |
3B |
Wayment (2B) (10), Tritle (2), Abruzzo (6), LOB-Kernels-13, Cougars-3, RLISP-Kernels-9, Cougars-1, 2B-Melgarejo (8), Aybar (21), 3B-Tritle (1), HR-Abruzzo(11)(Kohn)(2), Wayment (4)(Carroll)(1), Colamarino (13)(Carroll)(2), RBI-Melgarejo (21), Abruzzo 3 (48), Colamarino (52), Tritle 2 (8), Suomi (16), Craig (2), 2 Out RBI-Melgarejo, Abruzzo 2, Wayment (5), Colamarino (21), SACF-Abruzzo, SB-Melgarejo (6) Rogers (11), CS-Mathis (3), Sugden (1), Suomi (2), DP-Aybar (Lynch)(3)(6-4-3), Abruzzo (Lynch)(4)(4-6-3), Porter (Lynch)(5)(6-4-3)Colamarino(1)(Holcomb)(L8-4-3)
| Cedar Rapids |
|
|
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
2 |
0 |
1 |
|
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
1 |
0 |
|
|
4 |
16 |
1 |
| Kane County |
|
|
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
0 |
3 |
1 |
|
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
1 |
1 |
|
|
5 |
9 |
2 |
Kernels
| Name |
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
SO |
Decison |
WP |
BK |
HB |
AB |
BF |
GB |
FB |
NP |
S |
| James Holcomb |
8 |
6 |
3 |
3 |
1 |
10 |
ND |
0 |
0 |
0 |
28 |
29 |
6 |
5 |
93 |
65 |
| Jeff Marquez |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
5 |
ND |
0 |
0 |
0 |
7 |
7 |
0 |
1 |
26 |
18 |
| Ozzie Lugo |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
ND |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
10 |
9 |
| James Carroll |
2.2+1 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
2 |
L (0-2) |
0 |
0 |
0 |
10 |
10 |
3 |
3 |
30 |
24 |
Cougars
| Name |
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
SO |
Decison |
WP |
BK |
HB |
AB |
BF |
GB |
FB |
NP |
S |
| Matt Lynch |
5 |
8 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
3 |
ND |
0 |
0 |
0 |
21 |
22 |
3 |
7 |
70 |
54 |
| Chris Mowday |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
ND |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
5 |
2 |
0 |
23 |
9 |
| Shawn Kohn |
1.2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
4 |
ND |
0 |
0 |
0 |
7 |
7 |
0 |
1 |
25 |
19 |
| Edwardo Sierra |
3.1 |
3 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
ND |
0 |
0 |
0 |
10 |
12 |
1 |
2 |
44 |
28 |
| Chris Dunwell |
3 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
4 |
W (2-0) |
0 |
0 |
1 |
12 |
13 |
2 |
3 |
55 |
38 |
HB-Callaspo (Dunwell), IBB-Callaspo (Sierra)(4), SO-Melgarejo 2 (33), Abruzzo 2 (71), Abram 2 (16), Maher 3 (40), Cosby (62), Sugden (16), Porter 2 (27), McBeth (47), Gomez (56), Schmidt (31), Colamarino (67), Cruz 4 (96), Stavisky 2 (51), Rogers (42), Tritle 2 (23), Suomi 2 (20), Wayment 3 (67), BB-Abruzzo 2 (32), Abram (7), Maher (13), Mathis (15), Colamarino (37)
Ejection-Garrison (3)
A-14,006
H-(271,067)(42), A-(151,317)(51), T-(412,114)(90)
Attendence Note-8th largest crowd in Elfstrom Stadium History
Comments-Besides the horrible calls by the umps the game was entertaining. I just was hopping we would get an encor presentation of the Dancing Disco Infield Draging Myron Clones. but oh well no luck. Oh well instead we got Birdzerk!! Another reason for the umps is that there horrible calls and not to mention the strike zone judgement, could be caused by the fact that it was a full moon.
This Day In Cougars History (July 12th)
Birthdays
Jorge Bautista, OF/IF/P (97-99)-76
Elvis DeJesus, P (02)-78
Thanks
David Malamut
For More Info Go to my website at http://members.core.com/~malshere