East Texas Pump Jacks 8 Brazos Valley Bombers 6
Bryan-College Station, TX (August 7, 2009) –
The first pitch thrown by Travis Smith at Driller Park in Kilgore, Texas last night set a Bombers franchise record. The start by Smith was his tenth of the season, breaking a record set by 2008 Bomber, Jim McGonigle. When Smith struck out Mike Petello to lead off the sixth inning, he tied the Bombers franchise record of strike outs in a single season at 51 with Casey Whitmer. The strike out for Smith also set the record for innings pitched in a single season set the night before by Drew Flaniken. However, Smith’s bid for his first Bomber win came up short, as the Bombers fell 8-6.
After getting down 1-0 in the first inning, the bottom half of the Bombers lineup came alive. A one out double by Alan Harris started the Bombers come back in the second inning. Joe Craven’s walk with two outs was followed by a 2-run double courtesy of John Cannon. With Cannon on second and two outs in the inning, Jesse Payne hit a triple into the right field corner, increasing the Bombers lead to 3-1. The score remained the same until the fifth, when once again; the bottom of the Bombers line up went to work. Cannon led off with a single, followed by a Payne double. Kyle Atkins walked, and Casey Dykes followed him with a double off the wall scoring Payne. RBI singles by Atkins and Brett Parsons in the top half of the 7th, gave the Bombers a four run lead, with just 9 outs to go.
Smith’s record setting performance came up short, as Bombers pitching staff walked the first four batters in the 7th inning. Brett Nicholas and Matt Juengel each drove home 2 runs in the inning, and the Pump Jacks would have an 8-6 lead after the 7th. The momentum the Bombers had was now shifted, as Dusty Ross and Stephen Tromblee got the last six outs to preserve the East Texas victory.
The Bombers will face the Victoria Generals in Victoria, TX tonight and tomorrow night to complete the regular season schedule. The magic number for the Bombers to clinch a playoff spot over the McKinney Marshals remains at two, as the Marshals host the East Texas Pump Jacks tonight in McKinney.
Victoria Generals 10 Coppell Copperheads 5
(Victoria, Tx) With the end of the regular season near, and the post season tournament looming, The Coppell Copperheads have made a charge to assure their participation in the tournament. The Victoria Generals clinched the regular season championship award on Wednesday night and then clinched the #1 seed Thursday night, both at the expense of the Copperheads who had won 4 in a row, and eight of their last 10. The Generals completed the sweep 10-5 at Riverside Stadium.
Tyler King (5-2) threw 5 innings for head coach Chris Clemons, allowing 3 runs and striking out six. Garret Steward posted zeroes in the first three innings of relief but allowed two meaningless runs in the ninth as the Generals upped their record to 28-14. King is tied for second in the league with five wins, fourth in innings pitched, and is third with 55 strikeouts. King finishes the regular season with a 2.98 era. Steward lowered his era to 1.91.
The Generals came to bat in the bottom of the first, down two, but when the inning finally ended they had plated 7 runs and never looked back. James Hipp started things with a walk, Joey Kenworthy singled and Mark Hudson greated the Coppell starter, Brandon Parent with a double down the right field line. Then Mike Davis singled home a run and Brian Nephew delivered a sac fly to deep center. Kenny Jackson walked, Andrew Moore doubled and Chris Whitehead reached on one of the Copperhead’s 10 errors on the night. Catcher Drew Kimball singled and that was it for Parent as Jarrod Stafford came in to quell the Generals league-leading offense. Another error and single by Kenworthy ended the scoring for Victoria in the first but, they added runs in the 4th, 6th and eighth innings.
Hudson extended his league leading batting average to .379 with 3 doubles on the night, Mike Davis picked up two more rbi and Kenworthy stayed hot at the plate with two hits on the evening.
The defensive highlight of the evening came in the top of the fifth when Coppell had two on and two out. Heath Johnson drove one to deep left field which was caught just as it was leaving the park by a tall, leaping Andrew Moore.
The Brazos Valley Bombers come to Victoria Friday night for a two game homestand which ends the regular season. First pitch is slated for 7:05.
The post season tournament begins on Monday with the Generals hosting the #4 seed which is Brazos Valley at the moment.
