6/14/04 – Staunton News Leader

Braves help out Turks Valley Baseball League Five Staunton errors power division-leading Harrisonburg By Ken Bosserman Sports Writer STAUNTON — A dropped popup to third opened the floodgates for five unearned runs in the seventh inning Monday, and the Harrisonburg TURKS downed the Staunton Braves 7-5 at John Moxie Memorial Stadium in Valley Baseball League play. The Turks nickeled and dimed the Braves all night with an assortment of scratch hits, drag bunts, soft line singles, seeing-eye grounders and stolen bases. That, couples with give Staunton errors which led to six unearned Harrisonburg runs, was enough to produce the victory. "It was a tough, tough loss," said Braves manager Lawrence Nesselrodt. "We gave it away. We lost our poise in the seventh inning. And we didn’t make good defensive decisions all night. Usually, five runs are enough to win in this league, but we gave them too many opportunities. The error opened the gates, and we got rattled." The Braves were ahead 5-2 when the seventh-inning implosion occurred. The dropped popup started it, but there were three other errors in the inning that aided the TURKS. Cameron Clarke’s two-run bloop single to center ended the uprising and provided the margin of victory. Ten batters went to the plate in the seventh. Until then, the Braves pretty much had the upper hand. Shane Justis opened the Staunton first with a walk and stole second on a pickoff attempt. Jeff Beachum bunted him to third, and a sacrifice fly to right by Jordan Mayer plated the game’s first run. Staunton starter Rowdy Hardy, who had worked out of jams in the first and second, was finally nicked for a two-run single by the TURKS’ Reggie Watson in the fifth, but the Harrisonburg lead was short-lived. In the bottom of the frame, Brian Baisley walked, and Bridger Hunt reached on a drag bunt single to the right of the mound. Ryan Engelhardt followed with a hard ground double over the bag at third that plated both runners. That put the Braves in front 3-2. In the sixth, Beachum reached when his grounder to second was misplayed. Mayer lined a shot over the fence in left-center for his fourth home run of the season and a 5-2 Braves lead. Then things became unraveled in the seventh, and the Braves went quietly after that with TURKS hurlers retiring nine of the last 10 batters they faced. HARRISONBURG 000 020 500 — 7 13 2 STAUNTON 100 022 000 — 5 5 5 Norrick, Pereria (6), Brune (8) and Diaz. Hardy, Tucker (7) and Engelhardt. W — Pereria. L — Hardy. HR — Mayer (S) 6th, one on.