Minor League Discussion & Boxes 9-8-2006

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Paul Chiofar[/url]"]Cowart Complete Game Gem Ties Series

 

The Salem-Keizer Volcanoes defeated the Boise Hawks Friday night, 5-0 and evened the Northwest League Championship series at one game apiece. Adam Cowart, who won ten games during the regular season, threw a complete game shutout, allowing the Hawks just three hits and a walk.

 

Jose Ceda started for the Hawks and was touched for five runs in four and two-thirds innings. The Volcanoes scored a pair of runs in the first inning. After hits by Chris Todd and Bobby Felmy, Ryan Rholinger hit a double of the left field wall that drove in two runs to give Salem-Keizer a 2-0 lead. In the second inning Emmanual Burris drove in Brad Boyer who had doubled to increase the lead to 3-0. Bobby Felmy hit a two run home run in the fifth inning to complete the scoring in the game.

 

The Northwest League Championship Series continues with Game 3 on Saturday night in Salem-Keizer. Billy Muldowney will be on the mound for the Hawks. He will be opposed by the Volcanoes John Odom. Game time at Volcano Stadium is 7:05 p.m. Pacific time

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Eli Tintor hit two game-winning 2-run home runs this series. Both were with 2 outs in the inning.

 

PeoriaChiefs.com[/url]"]

Chiefs Season Ends with Game Three Loss

September 8, 2006 - Peoria, IL - The Peoria Chiefs season came to an end on Friday night as they fell 4-3 to the Beloit Snappers in the third and deciding game in the first round of the MWL playoffs Friday night at O'Brien Field.

 

With the score tied 2-2 in the eighth, Eli Tintor powered the Snappers to the next round. Justin Rayborn came on in relief and hit Dwayne White on a 1-2 count with two away. That set the table for Tintor who connected on a mammoth home run to left, his second go-ahead homer of the series, to give Beloit a 4-2 advantage. The Chiefs made a comeback effort in the eighth. With two outs and runners on first and second, Alberto Garcia punched a single to right to score Robinson Chirinos and cut the Chiefs deficit down to one at 4-3. However, that’s as close as Peoria would get as they stranded the tying run at second when Kyle Reynolds line out to left.

 

The Chiefs broke the scoreless tie in the fourth. Robinson Chirinos walked to lead off the inning. Jesus Valdez came up and scalded a ball just out of the reach of centerfielder Tarrence Patterson into the left-centerfielder gap to score Chirinos from first.

 

Allan de San Miguel blooped a single over Valerio Heredia’s head in shallow right field to score Chris Parmelee. Beloit took the lead on a safety squeeze by Patterson to plate Juan Portes to give the visitors a 2-1 edge. That lead didn’t last long. The Chiefs knotted it up at two on a RBI groundout off the bat of Chirinos which plated Davy Gregg.

 

Jesse Estrada was very sharp in a starting role. He fired seven innings and gave up two runs on two hits while walking four and punching out five. Justin Rayborn suffered the loss. He went one inning and gave up the two-run homer. Matt Avery tossed a scoreless ninth. Snappers starter Alexander Smit got the win. He also gave up two runs over seven innings of work. Dan Leatherman picked up the save in the ninth.

 

Pepsi Player of the Game

Jesse Estrada (RHP) - Estrada finished the season with a 7-1 total record and a 2-0 record as a starter. The righty allowed just two bloop hits in his seven innings of work. Notes… The loss was the Chiefs first playoff loss at O'Brien Field in seven games in stadium history… Attendance Friday night was 1,024.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

PJStar.com[/url]"]Chiefs suffer crushing blow

 

By RYAN ORI

 

PEORIA - One hard-hit ball by the Beloit Snappers gave the Peoria Chiefs a hard-luck feeling Friday night at O'Brien Field.

 

Beloit managed just three hits, but Eli Tintor's two-run home run in the eighth inning gave the Snappers a 4-3 victory in the decisive third game of a first-round Midwest League playoff series.

 

The Snappers advanced to play a three-game Western Division championship series against Kane County, beginning today.

 

"We had a total of 11 hits in three games," Beloit manager Jeff Smith said. "They pitched us extremely well and we couldn't get anything going against them at all. If I look at tonight's game, (Tintor's homer) was the only hard-hit ball we had all night. We didn't even have any hard-hit outs."

 

With the game tied at two, Chiefs reliever Justin Rayborn recorded two outs in the eighth and had a 1-2 count on Dwayne White before hitting him on the kneecap with a slider.

 

Rayborn then fell behind 2-0 in the count against Tintor, who in the previous week had a game-ending homer in a regular-season game against the Chiefs and a game-deciding, two-run homer in Game 1 of the playoffs against Peoria.

 

In a matchup of right-handers, Tintor won.

 

"I just got in a bad count with Tintor and I threw a bad pitch," Rayborn said as teammates packed their belongings in the clubhouse. "Fastball, right down the middle."

 

Tintor crushed the pitch more than 400 feet to left field for a 4-2 Beloit advantage.

 

"With a 2-0 count, I knew a fastball was going to be coming sometime," Tintor said. "I sat on it and did what I could do with it.

 

"That was a for-sure one off the bat. It felt good, but we still had to buckle down and play defense. We did what we had to do."

 

...

 

"It wasn't meant to be, I guess," Chiefs manager Jody Davis said. "Justin's pitched so well for us all year. He hits a guy, and then the guy who's killed us for the last week, we got behind him. That's the way he played the whole series. He didn't miss it when we made a mistake. He didn't miss it tonight, either."