Fort Wayne Wizards at South Bend SilverHawks
April 25th, 2002
| Fort Wayne |
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1 |
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0 |
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0 |
0 |
0 |
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1 |
4 |
0 |
| South Bend |
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0 |
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0 |
1 |
1 |
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1 |
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X |
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3 |
7 |
0 |
LOB FW-2, SB-3, 2B-Serrano, Lopez, Nichols, 3B-Knott, HR-Nichols (Germano), SB-Barfield, Barrett, SACB-Mace
BK-Gonzalez, SO-McCool, Benick, Trzesniak 2, Knott, Aquino, Barrett, Haiston 2, Janz, Haydel, BB-Benick
T-2:13, A-868
South Bend Tribune
by Forrest Miller
A night of unusual plays Thursday turned out well for the South Bend SilverHawks.
An unasissted double play by a pitcher, a runner doubled up on a foul popup and an infield line drive that turned into a hit were included as the SilverHawks won their third in a row, 3-1, over Fort Wayne at Coveleski Stadium.
Kyle Nichols hit his third home run of the season, then later doubled and scored on a hit by Bryan Loeb, Richie Barrett, one of several players given a chance to bat leadoff this season, had two hits and scored on an RBI double by Mike Lopez. He was doubled off first on a foul popup by Scott Hairston in the first inning.
Edgar Gonzalez, who pitched a no hitter on April 14th, didn't have to worry about that perfection for long.
Fort Wayne's second batter, Josh Barfield, hit a solf liner that South Bend shortstop Rich Haydel appeared to catch cleanly at his ankles. Haydel was stunned as the umpires gave a safe signal, and by the time he recovered, his throw to first was late.
"I know I caught it," said Haydel, "If there was any doublt at all in my mind I would have thrown the ball to first quickly."
The umpires saw it differently, "What a bummer that would have been if that had been the only hit." said manager Dick Schofield, "I though he caught it, too."
The play turned out to be insignificant, as hits by Doc Brooks and Eddie Serrano gave the Wizards their only run of the game in the secondn inning.
From the third through the eighth Gonzalez faced only the mininum of 18 batters. One of these batters, Jon Knott, tripled in the fifth. But Jackson Aquino attempting a suicide squeeze popped up the bunt to Gonzalez who made the catch and tagged Knott wo was helpless at home plate.
Brian Bruney pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his first save.
"Gonzalez really did a great job," said Schofield, "He's had three good outings in a row. Maybe he wasn't used to the cold weather the first time he pitched."
Nichols' homer got the Hawks a 1-1 tie in the fifth. Barrett singled, stole second, and scored on Lopez's hit, for a 2-1 lead in the sixth. Consecutive hits by Nichols, Jeramy Janz and Loeb made it 3-1 in the seventh and finished Fort Wayne starter Justin Germano. A sacrifice bunt by Clark Mace put runners on second and third with one out, but reliever Rusty Tucker shut down the Hawks the rest of the way.
Nichols knows he supposed to be the power guy for the SilverHawks.
"I'm seeing the ball well now", said Nichols, "Earlier I think I was trying to be the power guy and was pulling off the ball"