Friday, June 20, 2007

Silkworms Shut Out Swampbats 4-0

O’Brien and Kuckucka Combine on 5-Hitter

by Bob Molta and Paul Ofria/Silkworm Sports Information Dept

MANCHESTER –  Matt O'Brien (Hingham, MA/Holy Cross and Boston College) and  James Kukucka (Vernon, CT/Eastern Connecticut)combined on a five-hitter for the Silkworms' first shutout of Keene in the franchise's nine-year history as Manchester knocked off the Northern Division-leading Keene 4-0 Friday night at Northwest Park.

O'Brien allowed only three hits over the first seven innings, fanning seven and walking only three, and Kukucka secured the shutout by facing only seven batters over the final two innings.

“He’s just a work horse, he gave us seven strong innings,” Leyva said of O’Brien, who won for the first time in his fourth outing. “Probably if you are in a college game, you let him go, but he’s going to get a lot of work, probably get eight more starts. He was up in pitch count, so we wanted to get him out of there. We have a very strong bullpen and with two days rest, we had plenty of arms down there.”

Kukucka took over for O’Brien, who left with the 4-0 lead after throwing 99 pitches through seven innings. Kukucka allowed an infield single in the eighth and a double in the ninth, but left both runners stranded.

O’Brien (1-0) now leads the staff with 17 innings pitched and lowered his ERA to 2.12.

The Silkworms (6-4) broke through against Keene lefty Craig Gullikson (son of former major league pitcher Bill Gullikson) with two runs on three hits in both the fifth and sixth innings.
 
J.P. Polchinski's (Jamestown, NC/Army)sacrifice fly gave Manchester a 1-0 lead in the fifth, and Mike Bourdon's (Simsbury, CT/Fairfield U) RBI double with two out made it 2-0. Manchester chased Gullikson in the sixth with two insurance runs. A. J. Rusbarsky (Freehold, NJ/Seton Hall), Jeff Cammans (Jamestown, RI/URI) and Matt Grosso (Marlborough, CT/Notre Dame) opened the inning with hits, Grosso's RBI single making it 3-0. Zach Hudson's sacrifice fly accounted for the second run of the inning. O’Brien struck out the side in the first, stranding a runner at third.

After Rusbarsky led off the bottom of the first with a solid single over the second baseman’s head, a bolt of lightning – followed by a brief, but heavy rain storm -- kicked off a 31 minute delay.

The delay didn’t seem to phase Gullikson, who retired eleven straight, facing the minimum twelve batters after the Rusbarsky leadoff single in the first. Zach Hudson broke the string with single to right-center leading off the fifth and ended up scoring the game’s first run. Hudson moved to third on a single by Sean O’Hara and scored on Polchinski’s sacrifice fly in foul territory in right field.

“He was keeping us off-balance,” Leyva said of the left-handed Gullikson. “It took us one time around, but then we made adjustments,”

O’Brien put together a little string of his own, facing the minimum 13 batters after hitting Casey McGrew with a pitch with one out in the second. The lefty, who graduated from Holy Cross and with a year of eligibility  left, will pitch for Boston College as a graduate student next year, was quick to praise his teammates. “I got a lot of help from the defense on a couple of hard hit balls to the outfield,” O’Brien said.

The Silkworm defense clearly helped preserve the shutout in the top of the sixth. John Barr hit a two-out single and Paul Karmas (two doubles) followed with a rocket that clanked off the left-field foul pole. Left-fielder Joe Cotter (Bryn Mawr, PA/Villanova) played the ball off the pole, relayed it to Rusbarsky at the cut-off, who relayed it to Bourdon at the plate, catching Barr by ten feet. Manchester also turned a pair of double plays.

“Tonight we did all three things right,” Leyva said while savoring his first win over Keene (8-2) as the Silkworms manager. “We hit very well, but it was more timely hitting and we played defense and we pitched. If you can do two out of three, you are going to win a lot of ballgames.”

Game Notes: Bourdon, made his first Northwest Park start after starting four road games behind the plate for the Silkies…Matt Grosso did not have a hit in the Silkworms 4-0 loss in Torrington on June 15, but has had multiple hits games in the other eight games he has played… Keene came into the game with a league best 1.63 ERA with 82 strikeouts over 83 innings…Jeremiah Bayer (1-1, 3.55) is scheduled to start for the Silkworms in Sanford against the Mainers Saturday night.