(Photo by Alex McCreery)
By Matt Weiner (@MattWeiner20) – BSB Beat Reporter
Portland 11 (6-0, 0-0) vs SJSU 4 (4-3, 0-0)
Winning pitcher: Bret Gilis (2-0)
Losing pitcher: Micky Thompson (1-1)
You didn’t have to look between the chalk or the box score to notice the Spartans walked 10 batters and allowed 11 hits. Instead, you could’ve seen Portland’s first base coach draped in shin and elbow guards, looking like the baseball version of The Terminator.
In Mickey Thompson’s second start of the year, he walked seven batters and gave up five earned runs. When he picked Jake Tsukada off of first base for the first out of the game, it seemed like he would build off the momentum of the moment. However, the opposite happened. Thompson proceeded to walk four batters and allowed only one to score.
A similar script followed in the second, as Thompson allowed the first four batters to reach base and ended up letting three of them touch home.
His crisis management would make most 911 operators jealous as he never gave up an extra base hit, but it’s a situation that should’ve never come up in the first place.
His day came to an end with one out in the third after allowing a solo shot to Trace Tammaro and a single to Ben Patacsil. It marked the second day in a row a starting pitcher wasn’t able to complete three full innings and had at least seven walks.
Corey Sanchez was the first arm out of the pen to relieve Thompson going .2 innings allowing three runs, two of them being earned. Sanchez had to eat the lone error made by the Spartans, with runners on first and second and one out in the third inning. Portland’s Evan Scavotto set up a Taylor made double play, smoking a grounder to Hardy at short, which was bobbled. Following the error, two runs came in to make the game 9-0 after three.
Tim Scarlett, Kyle Bratset and James Shimashita followed Sanchez, doing an excellent job to gobble up innings and get the day over as soon as possible. Scarlett was the meat and potatoes going four innings, allowing two runs in his first before settling and serving up three of the next five scoreless innings to end the game.
It was a relief for a team that wanted to shake the “Etch A Sketch” and wipe the slate clean.
“It felt good when I started to develop my pace and felt good to keep going,” said Scarlett.
Hunter Dorraugh rustled the offense awake from its seven-inning-long-slumber by sending out his sixth home run of the year with two ducks on the pond.
Dorraugh’s reaction to the success isn’t cinematic and wouldn’t be something you’d hear from Pedro Cerrano in “Major League”.
“I know who I am and if the ball goes over the fence then it’s great we scored some runs,” said Dorraugh.
As the Spartans head into game three of the series already down two games to none, the hope is that the successful back half of the loss carries into tomorrow’s contest at 12:05 p.m..