South Bend SilverHawks at Burlington Bees
May 26th, 2002
| South Bend |
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0 |
0 |
0 |
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0 |
0 |
0 |
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0 |
0 |
0 |
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0 |
7 |
0 |
| Burlington |
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4 |
0 |
0 |
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2 |
0 |
0 |
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0 |
0 |
X |
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6 |
12 |
0 |
LOB SB-10, BUR-7, 2B-Gotay, Figuereo, Guzman, Cordova, Cleveland, SB-Guzman, HBP-Paredes, Haydel, Gotay
HB-Castellanos, Middleton, Rosado, WP-Middleton, SO-DiRosa, Barrett, Shanks, Fallon, Figuereo, Guzman, Draper, Cleveland 2, BB-Hairston, DiRosa 2, Vugteveen, Groves
T-2:17, A-740
U-Hanson, Barry
South Bend Tribune
Kyle Middleton, Hector Rosado and Tom Zurita did their part to help the Burlington Bees achieve a milestone Sunday afternoon.
The trio combined to scatter seven hits as Burlington posted it's first shutout of the season with a 6-0 blanking of South Bend in Midwest League action.
Anibal Figuereo was the offensive star for the Bees with three hits and two RBIs as Burlington seized command early by tallying four runs in the opening frame against South Bend starter Jonathan Castellanos (0-2).
South Bend's only major scoring threat came in the ninth inning when the Hawks loaded the bases with one out, but Zurita preserved the blanking by retiring Rich Barrett and Jarred Ball to end the contest.
Kevin Brand had two hits to lead the Hawks, who stranded 10 runners.
Burlington Hawk Eye
by Susan Denk
Not often is a 6-0 game so difficult.
The Burlington Bees may not have made it difficult Sunday at Community Field but they definitely made it interesting.
The South Bend SilverHawks loaded the bases with one out in the top of the ninth inning but Thomas Zurita worked out of the jame to preserve the Bees' first shutout, the first victory during a day game of the season.
"You'd think going in the ninth with a six run lead you can sit down on the bench and enjoy the moment but that's not necessarily the case." Burlington manager Joe Szekely said, " We were one hit away from having somebody up in the bullen."
Burlington moves to 22-25 while South Bend drops to 19-29.
The Bees controlled this one from the outset jumping on SilverHawks pitcher Jonathan Castellanos in the first inning. James Shanks led off with a bloop single to center field. Four hits and a walk later Burlington held a 4-0 lead.
"That's nice," Burlington starter Kyle Middleton said of the early lead. "It helps you relax. We're playing quite well as a team right now."
Middleton, coming out of the bullpen for a spot start, worked six innings. The right hander grew stonger as the game went along.
In the first inning, Middleton game up two singles. in the second, he walked two batters and threw a wild pitch. But by the third, he faced just three batters.
"He struggled early a little bit with his control and it didn't look like he was going to give us many innings." Szekely said. "He did a little batter in the second. His third inning was fantastic."
"I was getting a little tired. It was the most I've thrown this year." said Middleton, who allowed just three hits, walked three and struck out one.
The Bees renewed their offensive attack against Castellanos in the fourth, scoring two runs on three straight hits to open the inning.
"When we got him in the stretch, he was leaving a lot of balls over the plate." said Burlington shortstop Matt Cleveland, who doubled in the fourth and later scored. "He was all right from the windup but our guys at the front of the order got on and got him in the stretch and we got to him pretty good."
Defense aided in the shutout. A key play came in the eighth when left fielder Ben Cordova made a shoestring catch to rob Jarred Ball of an extra base hit with a man on first. The play proved even more important when Scott Hairston singled to batters later.
"All they need is a little thing like that to get right back into the ball game." said Szekely.
The Bees also turned three double plays while committing no errors.
"We just made it a goal of our team, the infielders, to get better," Cleveland said.
The victory came despite the blue uniforms the team wore instead of the regular home whites, Szekely was reluctant to wear the uniforms and is now afraid they will want to wear them all the time.
"The first time we wore them, we got smoked." Cleveland said., explaining Szekeley's reservations. "When we were in the clubhouse we said "Szek, let's wear blue today, He said, "All right, we'll wear them, hopefully now we'll get to wear them more."
"And they threw a shutout too," lamented Szekely, "So now they're going to want to wear them every game."
How They Scored
Bees 1st: Shanks singled to right center. Groves walked. Shanks advanced to second. Gotay doubled to left center, Groves advances to third, Shanks scored. Fallon struck out looking. Figuereo doubled to right center, Gotay scored, Groves scored. Guzman doubled to right center, Guzman advances to third. Draper struck out.
Bees 4th: Draper singled to left center, Cleveland doubled to center, Draper advances to third, Shanks singled to center, Cleveland advanced to third, Draper scored. Groves reached on fielder's choice, Shanks out at second. Cleveland scored. Gotay grounded out to first, Groves advances to second. Fallon grounded out to second.