Angry that the schedulers didn't give the Groundhogs a home-opener
doubleheader this season, many Punxatawney boosters hoped to at least go
home happy with a victory over the Springfield Atoms. The Hogs, never ones
to let the home crowd down, gave their fans what they wanted--five extra
innings and a victory.
Not only that, it was a great game all the way through. The Hogs took the
lead, breaking a scoreless tie with a run in the 5th and 7th innings.
However, Hogs starter Bobby Thomas lost his edge in the 8th inning, giving
up a single to George Milligan and walking Derek Bell before exiting the
game with two outs in the inning. Ricky Bottalico came in for his first
relief work of the year--and promptly gave up a 3-run homer to Tino
Martinez, putting the Hogs in a 3-2 hole.
"As soon as he hit the ball, everyone know it was gone," said Bottalico. "I
felt horrible."
But it was not over for the Groundhogs. In the 9th inning, Springfield's
Mike Stanton could not close the door on the Hogs. 9th hitter Robin
Jennings singled, advanced to second on a Dave Martinez single, and came
around to score the tying run when Scott Rolen drove in his second run of
the day with yet another single.
"We never give up," said Rolen. "We certainly proved that last season."
The game remained tied through the 14th. Strong relief work by
Springfield's Dan Consedine and Punxatawney's Curly Karkovice prevented
either team from threatening. But when Springfield brought in rookie Pete
Daley with the score tied at 3 in the bottom of the 14th, the pressure was
too much for him. He retired Dave Martinez and Scott Rolen to open the
inning, but when Tony Batista doubled, bringing Jose Valentin to the plate,
you could see the strain on the rookie's face.
Springfield manager Aaron Watson elected to walk the dangerous Valentin,
bringing Geronimo Berroa to bat. Berroa, one of the best veteran hitters on
the Hogs, turned on Daley's first offering and drove it back up the middle.
The speedy Batista scored easily, giving the Groundhogs a 4-3 victory and
the lead of the Riker division.
"He's just a rookie," said Berroa, referring to Daley. "He had no business
being in a game like this."
It is also worth noting that catcher Dan Wilson went 4-4 before being taken
out for a pinch runner late in the game, upping his average from .333 to
.600.
Tomorrow, the Hogs will send Sean Bergman and Juan Guzman against
Springfield's rookie hurler Mike Sirotka and veteran Mark Gardner. Sirotka
is making his major league debut. If the Hogs can win at least one of these
games, they'll hold on to the Riker division lead for at least 1 more day.
STATS 'N STUFF
Currently, Scott Rolen's name is pasted all over the leaderboards. Everyone
knew that he would be a superstar someday, and perhaps that day is now.
Rolen is 8-15 so far, hitting at a .533 clip. He also has 2 homers and 7
RBI.
At the moment, Rolen has the 2nd best average in the league (behind Dan
Wilson), the highest slugging percentage, the most hits, tied for the most
homeruns with 4 others, including teammate Jose Valentin. He also leads in
RBI and runs created. Alex Ochoa is the currently tied for the league lead
in runs.
Another great sign which continues for the Hogs has been the dominance of
the bullpen. In 14 1/3 innings of work, the pen has yielded just 1 run--the
run charged to Bottalico on the Tino Martinez homerun.
All in all, the season has started well in Punxatawney. Only 159 more games
to go before the postseason!
