Le Heartbreaker

Spirit Fall Short Up North by Joe Gravellese

NOTE: Sorry about the late update today. I have a massive (20-25 pages) research paper due on Thursday for school. My topic is (you guessed it) independent baseball. The bad news is, because I've been working on it, the updates may or may not be a bit late until Thursday comes; the good news is I'll be posting the whole darn paper on the site for you to read. And I think y'all will enjoy it.

The North Shore Spirit knew that facing Quebec at Le Stade would be the toughest challenge they've faced so far this season. But they didn't know that their toughest opponent would not be Player of the Week Eddie Lantigua and the rest of the Capitales, but rather, themselves. 4 errors by Marcos Agramonte, 3 unearned runs by Quebec, and a slow start by Ryan Bicondoa proved too difficult to overcome against the league's best in a raucous atmosphere at Le Stade de Quebec. 3,527 saw their Capitales extend their division lead to 4 games over North Shore, improving their record to 15-3. The Spirit drop to 9-5; they have dropped two in a row, their first losing streak of the season.

Both pitchers stormed through the first 1.5 innings of play until Quebec finally rattled Bicondoa in the bottom of the 2nd. Eddie Lantigua led it off with a single. Following that, a grounder by Buck McNabb was butchered by Agramonte, his first error of the night, putting the first two men aboard. The Caps made Marcos and the Spirit pay quickly as Olivier LePine punched a single up the middle to plate Lantigua. Two straight ground balls to 3rd produced two diving plays by Eric Storey, which wound up being two fielder's choice plays. On the 2nd fielder's choice play, Lee Delfino picked up an RBI as McNabb strolled home from 3rd, extending Quebec's advantage to 2-0. The next hitter, Benoit Emond, laced another single, but the runner Leathers was gunned out trying to score. When the inning finally ended 2 runs were home on 4 hits and 1 error.

The Capitales extended it in the Bottom of the 3rd. Shimizu reached on a fielding error by Marcos Agramonte. A walk to Tomlinson put the first two men on with nobody out. Lantigua popped out to make the first out, but McNabb followed him up with an RBI single to make it 3-0. Lepine was hit by a pitch to load the bases, but Bicondoa escaped and began to turn his game around by getting Leathers to ground into a double play.

North Shore finally got one back in the top of the 5th. After Weir and Sanchez started the inning with outs, a Marcos Agramonte double got things cooking in the inning. A balk moved Marcos to 3rd; Eric Storey then singled him home to score the Spirit's first run. Davilla fanned to end the inning but the lead was cut to 3-1.

Bicondoa finally got himself on track as he blew through the 4th, 5th and 6th giving up just one hit combined between the three innings. In the top of the 7th, the Spirit cut Quebec's lead to one. Bunt singles by Garret Weir and Marcos Agramonte set up an RBI bloop single by Vic Davilla to score a run. Oglesby fanned to end the inning and more runners were stranded by the Spirit.

In a move that is worthy of being second-guessed, Spirit manager John Kennedy elected to pull Ryan Bicondoa after 6 despite the fact that he was just beginning to roll along. Wayne Hedden came in to face the Caps in the bottom of the 7th and Bicondoa departed, giving up 3 runs, 1 of them earned, in 6 innings of work. Hedden immediately worked himself into a jam. He gave up a leadoff single to Greenwell, followed by a sac bunt by Delfino. He got Benoit Emond to strike out for the 2nd out of the inning, but a walk to Shimizu and a wild pitch but crucial insurance runs on 2nd and 3rd. A walk to Tomlinson brought up Eddie Lantigua in a huge spot with the bases loaded. Lantigua ripped one that appeared to be heading into the outfield for a hit but Sanchez robbed him with a great play to end the inning. How big was Yuri's play? Even Spirit announcer John Leahy said, "There's a line drive into left field for a base hit (sad voice). NO WAIT! YURI GOT IT!" Either he was stunned that Yuri just didn't make another error, or it was a *very* impressive play.

So with renewed life, the Spirit headed into the Top of the 8th with a chance to tie. With 1 out, Macchi came from down in the count 0-2 to work a walk. Fischer then grounded into a fielder's choice. A steal of 2nd by Rob Fischer and a walk to Garret Weir ended the day for reliever Rick Kirsten, as closer Cristian Mendoza came in to get 4 outs. This brought up the struggling Yuri Sanchez in a big spot; he struck out and the inning was over. 2 more runners were stranded by the Spirit.

In the bottom of the 8th, Quebec picked up an insurance run that turned out to be a dagger. An infield hit by McNabb led it off against Hedden. Peter Soteropoulos came in to face Olivier Lepine and the next play became the critical one in the game. A little ground ball to Agramonte was butchered, making the first error on the play and Marcos' 3rd of the game; this allowed LePine and McNabb to be safe at their respective bases. But what's worse is he threw the ball away when trying to get McNabb out, allowing Buck to come all the way around to score an insurance run. 2 errors by Agramonte on the play brought in an unearned run, Quebec's 3rd of the game.

*DIGRESSION ALERT*
In a brief bit of commentary, I will say that this play last night was one of those times where it would have been *very* useful to have a color commentator in the booth with Leahy. Leahy did a good job of describing the play from his perspective, but having a second set of eyes in the booth with a different description may have painted a clearer picture of what was a very confusing play at a critical spot. Even having Nick in the booth would be okay sometimes. Although sometimes Nick can be a bit hard to listen to on the radio, in general, I enjoy just having his set of eyes in the booth alongside the play-by-play man. Plus, Nick's biased but enthusiastic and passionate commentary is a good contrast to Leahy's professional but sometimes dull tone. But to give credit where credit is due, Leahy did an OUTSTANDING job with tonight's game, and was appropriately excited at big spots without being obnoxious the way Boyle could be some times. It looks like he achieved a balance, showing that quite possibly, it was the boredom of Elmira that led to sub par broadcasts on opening week and not just Leahy's nature. It was hard not to get excited about last night's crucial game. But if Leahy's coverage last night is indicative of what is normal for him, the Spirit have made a *GREAT* choice in hiring their new play by play announcer. He was informative, professional, and exciting.
Now back to the game... (oh yeah that)
*END OF DIGRESSION*

Soteropoulos escaped further damage but Quebec had a 2 run lead back, 4-2.

In the 9th, the Spirit attempted to muster a rally. Agramonte led off with a walk, continuing his solid game at the plate which was unfortunately overshadowed by a horrid day in the field. A failed pickoff throw by the pitcher allowed Marcos to scoot to 3rd. Storey struck out looking for the first out but Vic Davilla singled to score Agramonte. Travis Oglesby flew out to right (Travis not get a hit in the clutch? Noooooo, you *must* be joking [end of sarcasm alert]); Davilla tagged up and headed to 2nd. This brought up Alex Trezza with 2 outs and a runner on 2nd base. He hit a little flair toward shallow right field but the 2B Shimizu went back and made the catch, and Quebec held on for the 4-3 win.

Ryan Bicondoa (2-1) was the hard-luck loser while Marty Janzen improved to 3-0 with the win.

The bottom line on this one: The Spirit only could muster 3 runs on 10 hits while Quebec got 4 on 8, aided by 4 huge errors.

SPIRITFANS.BLOGSPOT.COM PLAYER OF THE GAME: Ryan Bicondoa (2)
Despite his rough start, Bicondoa settled down and wound up giving just 1 earned run over 6 innings of work and gave his team a chance to win. Without shoddy defense and failing to capitalize on 10 hits, they may have done so.

AROUND THE LEAGUE
WORCESTER 4, NEW HAVEN 2@ West Haven, Conn. Time: 3:03 ATT: 1,363 W: Junior Guerrero (2-0) L: Tim Keinath (0-3) S: David Byard (3) HR: None2B Alex Nunez was 3-for-4 with a stolen base, a run and an RBI to help Worcester edge New Haven 4-2. Junior Guerrero provided an excellent start for the Tornadoes, allowing just one earned run on four hits over six and a third innings, striking out three. David Byard pitched a scoreless ninth for his third save. 1B Yohanny Valera doubled and drove in two for the Tornadoes.
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ELMIRA 9, NEW JERSEY 8@ Elmira, NY. Time: ATT: W: Jose Guzman (1-0) L: Charles Sponhouse (0-3) S: NoneHR: NoneTrailing 8-3, New Jersey rallied valiantly for five runs in the eighth inning, only to be disappointed as Elmira scored a run in the bottom of the ninth to snatch the 9-8 victory. DH Sandy Madera’s bases-clearing double in the top of the eighth scored three and capped the five-run rally, but it was not quite enough. In the bottom of the ninth, SS Ryan Dorsey doubled and made his way to third on a wild pitch by Charles Sponouse. CF Jason Tuttle plated him with a single to win the game. Tuttle finished 4-for-6 with a double and three batted in. 2B Jobu Morita doubled and was 4-for-4 with three more RBIs. Jose Guzman pitched an inning and two-thirds scoreless for the win.-----------------------------------------------------------------------
BROCKTON 8, GRAYS 7 (10)@ Brockton, Mass. Time: 3:20 ATT: 2,336W: Joey Cole (3-1) L: Lenny Carter (0-1) S: NoneHR: GRY – Francisco Lebron (2) BRK – Saul Bustos (3)Facing a 7-4 deficit, the Rox rallied for three in the bottom of the ninth and scored in the bottom of the tenth to steal a wild one from the Grays, 8-7. With two on and no outs in the bottom of the ninth, SS Saul Bustos homered over the right field wall to knot the game at seven in dramatic fashion. In the bottom of the tenth, CF Matt Cucurullo singled home RF Al Roach to win the game. Cucurullo was 3-for-6 with two runs and two batted in to lead the Rox.

***Out of Town Game Stories Courtesy of CanAmLeague.com; I won't do this often, but I don't have time to type out my own today.

STANDINGS
QUE 15-3
NSR 9-5
ROX 9-9
GRY 9-9

WOR 8-6
NJJ 7-11
ELM 6-12
NHC 5-13