Saturday, July 19, 2008

By By Cam D’Auria, Silkworms Sports Information Staff

Worms Fall to Lowell 12-2

            The Silkworms dropped a 12-2 decision to Lowell Saturday night at Northwest Park, before a crowd of 521. The Silkworms couldn’t build on their extra inning win on Friday when they got excellent pitching and timely hitting. The Worms dropped to 13-20 on the eve of the All-Star Game, which will be played Sunday night at Torrington’s Fuessenich Park.

Manchester lost a half of a game in the standings to idle Torrington, who is 10-18, but still hold a ½ game lead over the Twisters for the fourth and final playoff spot in the NECBL South.

Mark Micowski  and Sean O’Hara drove in the Manchester runs.

Despite a ten run deficit, the game was not always to far out of reach for the Silkworms. Lowell (10-22) had a 2-0 lead after three innings and a 6-1 lead after six. The Silkworms had many opportunities to take back some runs. In the fourth, they left the bases loaded when Broderick flew out to right field. Manchester also had a scoring opportunity in the seventh, with Joe Cotter was on second with one out. Unfortunately, Mark Micowski flew out and Rusbarsky struck out, ending the inning for the Worms.

            “We haven’t been consistent hitting lately,” says manager Al Leyva, “and when we fall behind by three or four runs early, that’s a big deficit. It puts a lot of pressure on our hitters, so they start pressing. It becomes a ripple effect.”

Manchester made four errors, which led to three unearned runs. Starter Nick Noblit left with one-out in the fourth after allowing six runs (five earned) on seven hits. J.J Potrikus failed to retire a batter in the ninth, giving up five runs on six hits.

Tonight, the Silkworm offense went 6-for-32 (.188), striking out six times. They also left a total of seven on base. Manchester is last in the NECBL .218 batting average.

“I think if we can get some good starting pitching, which we got (Friday night), we can keep ourselves in the game.” Leyva commented.

Tyler Hyde, who had made five starts for Manchester, made his first relief appearance after missing two weeks with a back injury. His numbers were impressive before he was shelved.

Hyde came in during the seventh and pitched two shutout innings, striking out six batters, while giving up only one hit and two walks.

“Tyler tried to pitch though the (lower back) injury but it became unbearable, and that’s why he’s been on the shelf for two weeks,” explains Leyva. Hyde, prior to his injury had a 3.45 ERA over the five starts, while striking out 23 batters over 28.2 innings.

“We wanted to get him one inning,” Leyva said. “But he didn’t throw too many pitches (he threw 34 pitches, 21 for strikes), so we thought that we could let him go one more inning to see where he’s at. We’ll see how he feels on Monday. We’ll probably give him one more relief appearance, then hopefully we can get him a start before the playoffs.”

Despite the 0-1 record, Hyde has been a consistently reliable pitcher for Manchester. While he has not been credited with a win, he is able to strike out almost a batter per inning, and keep the Worms in games. A healthy Hyde will improve the Silkworms chances to make the playoffs.

Andrew Janiga gave the Silkworms 2.2 innings of relief, allowing just one unearned run. Mike Anarumo pitched a perfect ninth to finish out the near three-hour (2:57) game.

“I think we’re in a good spot,” Leyva comments about play-off possibilities, “The way I look at it, we’ve got to play .500 ball the rest of the way to qualify for the playoffs. I think .500 ball will get us in.”

With the possibility of Hyde coming back, and the hope that the bats will heat up, the Silkworms look to achieve a position in the playoffs. They are all going to have to play good baseball because they have a tough schedule coming up. They face both Pittsfield and Newport (#1 and #2 in the Southern Division) following Sunday’s All-Star game.

 The Silkworms will also play a make-up game at home on Monday night against North Adams starting at 7 p.m. Worms Fall to Lowell 12-2