Barely more than a week into the PVBL's 4th season, the Riker Division is
already lined up just as it has been for most of the last three years. The
Punxatawney Groundhogs lead the Houston Hellraisers by a small margin with
the Springfield Atoms in 3rd and the lowly Tampa Bay Mets in last. But the
Mets were causing problems for the Groundhogs, handing them an embarrasing
12-3 loss in Punxatawney on Sunday.
"Our fans deserve better than that," said reliever Tim Worrell, who allowed
8 runs in the final 3 innings. "I lost my concentration out there and they
took advantage of it."
After suffering the game one loss, the Hogs rebounded in the final two games
of the series, winning 4-1 and 8-5. The first victory was a masterful
pitching performance by Jon Lieber. The soft-throwing righty allowed just 3
hits and 1 run while striking out 12 men in 8 innings. In fact, Lieber did
not allow after the first inning. In that inning, Rick Wilkins singled with
two outs. Mark Whiten and Magglio Ordonez each followed that with a single,
scoring Wilkins. Lieber then went on to retire Rico Brogna and every other
batter for the next 7 innings--22 in a row total. Ricky Bottalico recorded
his first save by striking out two men in the final inning and getting a
groundout.
The offense came from where it is supposed to, the heart of the order. 6 of
the Hogs 7 hits came from 3-4-5 hitters Tony Batista, Jose Valentin, and
Geronimo Berroa. Each had a pair of hits and scored all 4 of the team's
runs. Valentin had the only RBI of the group, but Alex Ochoa drove in two
runs to give the Hogs a 2nd inning lead from the 7th spot as well.
"We usually don't do it this way, its almost always a team effort here,"
said Geronimo Berroa. "But the way Jon pitched, we had to be sure he got
his win."
The 8-5 game was much more exciting and crazier. The Hogs lit up Tampa
Bay's rookie hurler Jackson Pride, scoring 4 times in the first inning. But
after a rain delay that lasted almost four full hours, Pride left the game,
as did the Hogs' Bobby Thomas.
"There was no sense in running Bobby back out there. He was in no state to
pitch after his arm was cooling off for four hours," said Shapiro.
Unfortunately for the Hogs, it was not reliever Curly Karkovice's day. He
gave up a grand slam to Rico Brogna after the rain delay, allowing the Mets
to tie the score at 4.
"Its nobody's fault but my own," said Karkovice, who could have gotten the
win if he had protected the lead. "But we have the team to come back from
that."
That they did. In the bottom of the 4th, they scored twice, going ahead
6-4. Two more runs in the 5th gave the team a 8-4 edge. Fine relief work
by Masato Yoshii, who got his second victory of the year with 6 solid
innings of work kept the Hogs safely ahead as they went on to win 8-5.
And this time, it was a true team effort on offense yet again. Almost
everyone had a hit while Dave Martinez, Batista, Berroa, Ochoa, and Robin
Jennings had 2 hits each. Giambi and Ochoa each hit homeruns and drove in 2
each. Berroa doubled twice and scored two runs.
Tomorrow, the Hogs and Mets will conclude this 4 game set. Currently, the
Groundhogs have a 2-1 lead in the series. Sean Bergman will go up again
Sandy Carroll. Bergman won his first start, allowing 1 run in 6 innings,
while Carroll lasted only two innings, but did not allow a hit, in his only
outing.
STATS 'N STUFF
As offenses gradually begin to pick up all across the league, the Hogs
continue what has been a fairly solid first week. Tony Batista is once
again coming on strong. After 36 at bats, Batista is hitting .361 with 6
doubles, 2 homers, a team-best 10 runs created and .694 slugging percentage.
Geronimo Berroa is also having a hot start. He's hitting .313 and has even
stolen 2 bases already! Dan Wilson is the other leader so far, batting an
amazing .379 (11-29) with 2 homers. He too has a stolen base.
Scott Rolen has slumped off a bit from his incredible start, but is still
hitting a very solid .297 with 2 homers and 8 RBI. The only real
disappointment has been Jason Giambi, only 5-30 with 1 homerun so far.
"Jason has started every season ice cold, but by the time we got to the
playoffs, he was carrying the team," said Shapiro. "We're sticking with
him, but if he keeps this up it might be worth sitting him down for a few
days and giving Robbie Kelly some playing time."
On the pitching side of the ball, a number of misprints on the statistics
have impaired the ability of this writer to judge the whole team. However
it is clear that the starting pitching has been excellent so far. Jon
Lieber already has 19 strikeouts in only 12 innings, and there have only
been 2 non-quality starts so far--one of those being 4 scoreless innings by
Lieber, and the other being Thomas' brief outing today because of the rain
delay.
The bullpen has been fairly strong so far. Masato Yoshii, who was nearly
traded many times in the offseason, apparantly wants to start some games.
He's 2-0 with a 1.64 ERA in 11 innings over 4 games. But both Tim Worrell
and Curly Karkovice have been battered around at least once for many runs in
not so many innings. But with Scott Ruffcorn and Bobby Munoz throwing well,
and Ricky Bottalico being his usual self, the Groundhogs bullpen is
formiddable.
