Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Catfish 5, Greenville 4

Catfish From the Columbus Catfish:

Fourth Straight Win for Catfish on Road Trip with 5-4 Victory Over Greenville
Catfish Pitchers Strike Out 16 Batters in Win; RHP Chris Malone Wins Eighth Game

GREENVILLE, SC—Three Catfish pitchers combined to strike out 16 Greenville Bomber batters as the Fish won their fourth in a row, beating Greenville 5-4 in the first game of a four-game set. RHP Albenis Castillo struck out Greenville RF Austin Easley with the tying run at third base and the winning run at first in the ninth inning to preserve the victory. 1B Dan Batz went 3-4 with a double and his first HR since April 30th, driving in two for Columbus (38-49, 10-8 second half), while 3B David Nicholson returned to the Catfish and finished 2-5 with a triple and an RBI. The Catfish have won five of eight games on this road trip and stand two games over .500 for the
first time in either half of the SAL season. The Fish now hold a 7-5
advantage in the season series over the Bombers (44-42, 9-9) with the victory.

Nicholson led off the game with a triple against Greenville RHP Jarrett Gardner and scored on a double play groundout. In the second, Batz ripped a home run to left, his second of the season to make it 2-0 Fish. The Fish added runs on RBI singles from Nicholson and CF Ryan Russ in the fourth inning to take a 4-0 lead. Meanwhile, Malone cruised through four. He allowed just one baserunner through four innings, a one out walk in the fourth. Looking to duplicate his near perfect game almost two months ago in Greenville, Malone finally gave up a hit in the fifth as Greenville picked up two runs on three hits to pull to within two.

Batz drove home a run in the sixth with a double to give Columbus a 5-2 lead, but Greenville made one last comeback attempt. Wright struck out five of the first seven batters he faced, but hit a batter in the ninth to put a runner on with one out, leading 5-3. After another punchout for the second out, an error prolonged the inning, and Greenville C Salvador Paniagua singled home a run to make it 5-4. Castillo struck out Easley with two on and two out to preserve the victory for the Fish. Tomorrow RHP Zach Hammes (2-4, 5.04 ERA) starts for Columbus in the second game of the series at 7:05 PM in Greenville.

3 comments:

  1. Git-r-done, Catfish!

    Aye, it's true I have no loyalty to the Bombers anymore. I'm still pissed about some motherfu...I mean some college educated shyster stealing them from my hometown.

    Now when I move to Charleston in the near future (G-d willing), I'll have to hope the River Dogs tap dance all over y'all. ;)

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  2. Columbus hosts Charleston last weekend of the regular season. And, when the Catfish take the second half, they'll travel to Charleston to face off for a berth in the leage championship series. See you then!

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  3. I think it is so cool that you follow and support your team like this. Rock on Basil.

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