West Michigan WhiteCaps at Dayton Dragons
April 10th, 2004
| West Michigan |
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5 |
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| Dayton |
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8 |
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E-Hudson, LOB WM-6, DAY-6, 2B-Rodland, Dickerson 2, Conley, SACF-Giarratano, SB-McKinney, Conley, CS-Hudson
WP-Vasquez, DeLaCruz, SO-Kirkland 2, Sabino, Trezza, Francia 2, Smith, Fry 2, Kroski, Conley, Hudson, BB-Rodland, Giarratano, McKinney, Francia, Hernandez, Votto, Hudson 2
T-2:35, A-8,318
HP-Scott Jarrad, BS-Tyler Funneman
Dayton Daily News
by Marc Katz
One more well placed hit would have made all the difference for the Dayton Dragons on Saturday night, but they still had plenty to be happy about depite falling just short of victory.
Pitchers Josh Thigpen and Luis Noriega each had excellent outings and center fielder Chris Dickerson drove in two runs with his second double and made an over the shoulder catch at the wall. Unfortunately, a West Michigan runner tagged on that play to score the winning run in a 3-2 WhiteCaps' victory in front of 8.318 fans at Fifth Third Field.
"We had some opportunties," Dragons manager Alonzo Powell said. "We had two on in the first and the bases loaded in the third and didn't score. But that's baseball. And our pitchers were close to being perfect."
Thigpen pitched five innings of four hit ball and Noriega concluded with four innings of one hit ball. Evan though Thigpen crowded his 75 pitch limit with 71 pitches (he walked three), he recorded the longest outing for the Dragons in their three games.
Noriega was even more efficient, needing just 54 pitches to get through his night. "You take some positives out of it." Thigpen said, "but you do want to win. You're not going to move up losing."
Noriega, one of the last pitchers to make the team out of spring training, had similar thoughts. "It's better if the team can win, "Noriega said."
One more hit might have done it, Dickerson led off the game with a double and Habelito Hernandez walked, but Joey Votto's line drive to the lef of second was snared by shortstop Tony Giarratano, who caught Hernandez too far off first for a rally killing double play.
Dickerson drove in his two runs with two out in the second, but in the third, the Dragons put their first three batters on with singles, stranding them all. After that, they never pit more than one runner on in an inning.
Still, the Dragons led 2-1 entering the fifth when a walk, single and double scored one run for the WhiteCaps. Then Giarratano's drive just ot the right of dead center was tracked by Dickerson. Vince Blue tagged at third to score the winning run.
Dragon Tales
With two man umpiring crews in the Class A Midwest League, one umpire is behind the plate and only one umpire is in the field. After Dickerson's catch, base umpire Tyler Funneman was watching the runners and didn't appear to clearly indicate the out on Dickerson's catch. That's why Dickerson ran in to argue, thinking the ump called a no catch.
Powell changed his lineup for the first time, using Chris Kroski as his catcher, Evan Conley at third and Will Hudson at short.
"I wanted them to get their feet wet, plus with Sunday off, that gives the other guys two days of rest, even through it's early in the season and they probably don't need it yet," Powell said.
Kroski had to come out after the third because of tightness in his hamstring, but Conley had two hits, including a double, scored a run and stole a base. and Hudson walked twice.