Strong pitching enables Fire to end losing streak

Published Friday, June 27, 2008

Three straight losses in two days to the Alaska Goldpanners got to Athletes in Action starting pitcher Brett Hoogkamp.

Hoogkamp and reliever Shawn Tuefel got to the Goldpanners in Thursday night’s Alaska Baseball League game at Growden Memorial Park, securing a 4-2 victory to end AIA’s five-game losing streak.

AIA had dropped a game each to the Glacier Pilots and the Bucs last Friday and Saturday in Anchorage, and the Goldpanners showed their Growden co-tenant no mercy, either.

Alaska won 8-5 Tuesday in a game that had been suspended Monday by rain. Later Tuesday in the regularly-scheduled contest, the Goldpanners cruised to an 11-3 win and on Wednesday, they rallied for an 8-7 victory in 10 innings.

A positive attitude Thursday helped the Fire improve their sixth-place record to 3-6 ABL and 6-8 overall.

“Coach just told us over and over again to keep our heads up and put all three facets of the game together,’’ Hoogkamp said. “Tonight, we were pretty motivated and we came out with a win.’’

The Fire generated nine hits off Goldpanners newcomer Ryan Duran and reliever Ben Jones, led by center fielder Ryan Enos going 2-for-3 with three runs scored and first baseman David Stewart driving in two runs in a 1-for-4 night.

The brunt of Goldpanners’ seven-hit attack came from three players with two hits each — Raoul Torrez, Matt Newman and Ryan Heroy. Torrez accounted for both runs with a double in the bottom of the fifth inning.

Hoogkamp gave up Torrez’s double, but aided by a fastball on the outside part of the plate, he also retired the side in order in the first, sixth and seventh. while allowing six hits, striking out one and walking one.

“I just tried to hit the outside corner with two-seams (fastballs) and change-ups, and I tried to keep them off balance all night,’’ Hoogkamp said, who improved to 2-1.

Before he gave way to the left-handed Tuefel, Hoogkamp set down six batters in a row in the sixth and seventh, and it set a tone for his left-handed teammate from Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va.

After Tuefel retired the order in the bottom of the eighth and got leadoff batter Jeremy Gillan to ground out to third in the ninth inning, 10 straight Goldpanners had come up and gone down in 3 1/3 innings.

“They brought the left-hander (Tuefel) in the eighth and he just hit his spots. He had great command,’’ said Alaska head coach Tim Gloyd. “He just started beating us away and he’s got the hammer.”

The shutdown streak ended when Heroy singled to left in the bottom of the ninth. Tuefel then ended the game and earned his second save by getting pinch hitter Jason Hamel to ground into a double play.

Gloyd, though, saw more than AIA’s pitching dropping his team’s third-place record to 3-3 ABL and 7-4 overall.

He cited five infield hits allowed; two hits with no-ball, two-strike counts; two batters hit by pitches with the counts 0-2 and two walks.

“That’s 11 at-bats that we wasted on defense,’’ Gloyd said.

Duran, a former Santa Clara University (Calif.) pitcher who spent this past season at San Jose City College, was making his first appearance for Alaska. He allowed all of the AIA runs and hits, while striking out two, hitting two batters and walking one in 5 1/3 innings. He was supported, though, by two double plays.

“He had pretty good stuff. He was just a little ... I think he’s going to be pretty good,’’ Gloyd said.

Jones retired the side in order in the seventh and eighth with two strikeouts and gave up a one-out walk in the ninth before inducing the last two batters he faced to ground and fly out, respectively.

AIA led 3-0 in the fourth, as Stewart figured into two runs.

His grounder scored Enos in the top of the second, where Quinnlan Clair came in on Duran’s wild pitch to Nick Crawford. Stewart got his second RBI by doubling home Enos in the fourth for the game-winning run.

“His first two pitches were change-ups low and I looked bad on them,” Stewart said. “I was waiting for that off-speed away and I saw it and I just threw my hands (out).’’

Two innings after flying out on a first pitch, Torrez cut the lead to 3-2 by taking Hoogkamp’s first pitch and sending it to the left center field.

Enos stretched AIA’s lead in the top of the sixth by leading off with an infield hit and coming home on Fran Darden’s sacrifice fly.

Community Discussion

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  1. este
    6/27/2008, 4:51 p.m.
    Suggest removal

    Right on! Glad to see such great baseball at Growden.

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