Sidewinders Fall Short in 7-6 Loss

4/4/08

Tucson, AZ - The Tucson Sidewinders loaded the bases down in the bottom of the 9th down a run but were unable to plate tying run in their 7-6 loss to the Colorado Springs Sky Sox Friday. The team fell to 1-1 on the season, tied for first place in the PCL Pacific Southern Division.

Cory Sullivan led off the game ground rule double off of Tucson starter Billy Buckner. Buckner walked three batters to force in the first run of the game, and yielded two more on a Humberto Cota line drive single to leftfield to give the Sky Sox an early 3-0 lead.

Going into the third that bats got heated for both teams. In the top of the third Sean Barker singled on a line drive to center that deflected off Buckner. Joe Koshansky singled on a line drive to rightfield. After a fly ball and a walk Buckner found himself bases loaded again. Pitcher John Koronka doubled to left to bring in two runs pushing the Springs advantage to 5-0.

Sidewinders came back and answered with four runs of their own in the bottom third when seven consecutive Sidewinders reached base. Tucson Rightfielder Javier Brito delivered the big blow in the inning with a two RBI double to left field. The Sidewinders batted around in the inning, turning the lineup over for the second time in two games.

Brito belted a two down the line in left in sixth inning, briefly giving Tucson a 6-5 lead, but Colorado Springs scored two runs off of lefty reliever Evan MacLane the following frame to recapture the lead 7-6.

Sky Sox righty Ryan Speier, who led the PCL in saves a year ago, gave a leadoff single to First Baseman Josh Whitesell in the ninth. He retired the next two batters, but struggled with his control, walking the bases loaded before getting Emilio Bonifacio to fly out to left to end the contest.

The Sidewinders will face the Sky Sox at 6:30 PM on Saturday. RHP Juan Gutierrez (0-0, 0.00) is scheduled to start for Tucson. Right-hander Victor Zambrano (0-0, 0.00) will start for the Sky Sox. The game's broadcast can be heard on www.BaseballReno.com starting at 6:15 p.m.

Colorado Springs @ Tucson, April 4, 2008

			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9			R	H	E
CSP			3	0	2	0	0	0	2	0	0			7	13	2
TUC			0	0	4	0	0	2	0	0	0			6	12	1

WP:	Valerio De Los Santos (1-0)
LP:	Evan MacLane (0-1)
SV:	Ryan Speier (1)

T:	3:21
Att:	2,689