Saturday August 2nd 2008

By: Don Leypoldt, Silkworms Sports Information Department

Newport, RI-The NewportGulls exploded for eight runs in the first inning to highlight a 9-2 defeat of the Manchester Silkworms in Game Oneof the NECBL Southern Division semi-finals.

Other than that Mrs. Lincoln,how did you like the play?

NECBL All-Star MVP catcherMike Melillo and left fielder Kyle Conley, the league’s regular season co-homerun leader with 8, led off the game with 2 and 3-run dingers respectively.  Manchesternever recovered from the opening barrage in which the Gulls tacked on eightruns and sent 13 players to the plate. Melillo added an RBI single in his second trip to the plate in the firstinning.     

All-Star Brian Pendergast (Manhattan/Farmington, CT) had a 9.00 ERA in thefirst inning of games this summer- and a 2.29 ERA in all other innings.  That trend continued tonight; Pendergast wasspelled by Nick Noblit (AmericanInternational/Westfield, MA) after just 2/3rds of an inning.  Ironically, tonight was easily Noblit’s best outingof his dozen 2008 summer appearances. The hard throwing righty gave up a single to the first batter he faced,then promptly forced the next 16 Gull hittersto go hitless.  Noblit allowed just one run, three hits and struck out five in his 5.1 innings.  Lefty MikeAnarumo (LeMoyne/ Levittown, NY) kept pace with Noblit bytossing two shutout innings of relief.    

Left fielder Mark Micowski (Vermont/Haddam, CT) andfirst baseman J.D. Broderick (Carmel, NY/West Virginia State)both singled twice for Manchester.  Broderick’s eighth inning bases loaded singleplated Micowski to break the shutout.  Secondbaseman Ryan Piacentini (Trinity/Portland,ME) knocked in DH Matt Grosso (NotreDame/Marlborough, CT) on a fielder’s choice one batter later.  It was quite a night for Piacentini.  His 5th inning leaping grab ofNick Santomauro’s bullet was one of the defensive highlights of the year; itwas also one of his three putouts on the evening.

On June 28th, Newport was trounced athome 11-1 by the last place Danbury Westerners. It was the Gulls’ sixth straight loss and the defeat sank them to twogames below .500.  Since that nadir, theyhave rattled off a 20-8 record, which was enough to earn them the #1 seed inthe Southern Division. 

Part of Newport’s spark can be attributed to thedominance of Vanderbilt freshman Chase Reid, who boasted a typo-like 55 to 5strikeout to walk ratio in 38.1 regular season innings.  Reid highlights a 91 MPH fastball with a goodcurve and change.  The Silkies did bangout three hits in their first eleven at bats off of Reid and drew a hit or walkin all but one inning.  Reid fanned nine on the night.

Team Manchester hoped for a“retro” night promotion in Cardines Field- back to 2006 when current ChicagoWhite Sox farmhands Drew Garcia and Justin Greene combined for two doubles, ahomer and 4 RBIs in leading the #4 seed Wormsover #1 seed Newportin a dramatic, come from behind 8-5 win in game one of the playoff series.  Or at least back to July 7th atCardines, when Pendergast allowed just three hits and threw 8 shutout inningsin the Silkies’ best pitching performance of 2008.  Needless to say, that wasn’t in the cards.

The series winner will playthe winner of the North Adams-Pittsfield series.  At press time, Pittsfield had a 1-0 advantage.

The Silkworms’ next game is tomorrownight, Monday August 4th, at home in Northwest Park when they host theGulls in game two of this best of three series.  First pitch is 7:00 p.m; Northwest Parkis located off of Tolland Turnpike.  Comeout and cheer the Silkworms in their fifth consecutive postseason appearance!

Coming into tonight: Brian Pendergast has a 3.00 ERA on the road--- RyanMcGrath has allowed no walks and just one hit in three shutout innings againstthe Gulls this year--- Tyler Hyde has a 2.70 ERA against Newport this summer---Worm relievers have not surrendered an earned run in 8.1 innings at CardinesField this year--- Matt Grosso is hitting .409 in his six games againstNewport--- Mike Gallic is hitting .300 with 3 steals against the Gulls--- RhodeIsland native Jeff Cammans is hitting .353 over his last six road games---Andrew Janiga has a 0.96 ERA on the road this summer.