Bucs and Bears trade blowouts

Report by Michael Orpen-Palmer

AustinIn two completely contrasting games played against the Windsor Bears Sunday 6th July, the Brighton offence mustered 19 hits and 13 runs. Incredibly, 17 of the hits and all the runs came in the second match-up. So, once again this season the Buccaneers split a series by winning the second game.

Windsor Bears starter Dean Stoka completely silenced what is usually a fairly potent Brighton offence. In seven innings of work he faced just 27 batters, striking out 11. He gave up more free passes (4) than he did hits (2).

For the first three innings, it appeared that Brighton’s starter Pat Austin was going to post a similar performance. However, in the bottom of the fourth, Bears lead-off man, centre-fielder Terry Gladis, singled. Although he was forced out during the next at-bat, it set the table for Windsor to score their first run on three singles. Then, with the bases loaded, Austin plonked shortstop Owen Turner to score another.

The next Windsor inning began with catcher Matt Stoveldt drawing a walk. He was subsequently driven home by third-baseman Rhian Truscott’s double to left field.

Windsor tacked on two more runs in the bottom of the sixth inning. After DH Graham Strain had worked an eight-pitch walk to join Turner — who was at second base after a successful steal — on base with no outs, Soltveldt drove both runners home by driving a ball to deep centre.

Six-run seventh in Bucs’ 13-1 win

CarterThe second game saw a complete reversal of fortune. The Bucs jumped all over Windsor starter Graham Strain, and saw him out of the game after four innings. Neither of the relievers could stem the flow of runs from a side with a point to prove. Strain could count himself slightly unfortunate because after giving up two runs in the first, he kept the Bucs scoreless for two innings.

An inspired piece of base running by Pat Austin in the fourth inning opened the floodgates. With runners at the corners, Austin kept himself in a rundown play long enouth for catcher Ryan Stewart to sprint to home plate.

With Brighton’s starter Nick Carter (5 innings, 4 hits, 1 run, 7 strikeouts), and reliever Michael Close (2 innings, 1 hit, 2 strikeouts), maintaining control over the Bears’ offence, the Bucs started to cut loose against Windsor’s relievers. Chris Lange pitched to 14 batters in two innings, giving up three runs (two earned) and was replaced by Andy McCormack at the top of the seventh inning.

In this half-inning, eleven Bucs batters came to the plate, scoring six runs on eight hits. After Martyn Dutton singled and was caught stealing, Louis Chesney singled and pinch hitter Will Lintern doubled to right-centre. Second-baseman Austin — who had doubled and scored in the top of the first — struck a 1-2 pitch for an opposite field single, scoring Chesney. Centre-fielder Alex Malihoudis’ double scored the runners. Third-baseman David Donaldson collected his first hit of the day, a double, and Close drew a base-on-balls. Carter’s double to right, followed by Dutton’s single saw both runners score to make the final score 13-1.

A number of the Windsor Bears players were unhappy at the pitch calling of plate umpire Steve Williams, who ejected both Soltveldt and Stein for their abusive comments.

Heath makes UK debut

HeathBrighton welcomed a new addition to the line-up, Darren Heath. Born in London, his family moved to San Diego in 1989 and after playing in college baseball he came to the Bucs via the Internet.

Despite flying in from the States only on Thursday, Heath impressed with both his athletic fielding and hitting. He hopes to be available for the rest of the season and should be a very useful addition to the Brighton team, who are still in the race for the Rawlings National League pennant.

Brighton’s next game is at Pavilion Field on 27 July against the Croydon Pirates.