Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Dans split with Dubois

The Danville Dans and Dubois County Bombers split a pair of seven-inning games Wednesday night at Danville Stadium. Danville took the first contest 5-1 with some timely late hitting, and Dubois responded with a 5-4 win in a back-and-forth battle in game two.

In game one, Justin Miller and John Hotta each doubled in the second inning to give Dubois an early 1-0 lead. The Bombers kept that advantage behind some great pitching early on from starter Joe Ochs, who was perfect through the first four innings.

But Danville got to Ochs in the fifth. Dabo Worthington led off with a double, and Austin Green knocked him in with a triple to deep left-center field that just deflected off the glove of diving Bombers center fielder Gavin Green. Jason Nappi then followed with a sharp single up the middle to give the Dans a 2-1 lead, even though they’d been outhit 6-3 at that point.

Danville added on in the sixth inning. Chris Lewellyn reached on an error, and Jason Hamm singled. Nate Johnson then ended any hope of a Bombers comeback with a three-run shot to right field that chased Ochs and gave the game its final 5-1 margin.

Aaron Lambrix (2-1) picked up the win for Danville, allowing one run in 5 2/3 innings. He allowed seven hits and kept the game close early by escaping a one-out jam with runners on second and third in the fourth inning. Greg Houston got his second save of the year by stranding two runners in the sixth inning and pitching a scoreless seventh.

Ochs (0-1) took the loss for Dubois. He allowed five run – four earned – in 5 1/3 innings. At the plate in game one, the Bombers were led by Miller, who went 3-for-3 with a run and two doubles.

Danville had five players with one hit and – in the quirky stat-of-the-day column – didn’t strand a runner in game one.

In the second contest, the Bombers went ahead 1-0 on a Miller RBI single in the first inning. The Dans responded in the bottom half with two runs on an Austin Green RBI groundout and a run-scoring wild pitch.

It stayed that way until the fourth inning, when Dubois’ Brennan Malham had an RBI triple and scored on a Hotta sacrifice fly. That lead was short-lived, however, as Ryan Van Amburg drilled a pitch into deep center and raced around the bases for a rare inside-the-park home run

The Danville lead didn’t last long either. In the top of the fifth, Chadd Krist laid a perfectly-place bunt down the third-base line for a single. He then scored on Malham’s second extra-base hit of the contest, a double to left field that tied the game at four.

It was Hotta who came up with the biggest hit, though. The right fielder smacked a two-out RBI triple to score Malham with the winning run in the top of the seveth.

The two starting pitchers took no-decisions. Danville’s Codie Rollins allowed three runs in 3 1/3 innings, and Dubois’ Phillip Byrd gave up four runs in 3 2/3 innings. Mark Lamm took the loss for Danville, while James Page picked up the win. Matt Antos threw a 1-2-3 seventh for the save.

At the plate, the Bombers were led by Malham, who went 2-for-4 with two RBIs, two runs, a double and a triple. Danville only managed three hits in the loss and was paced by Van Amburg’s 1-for-2, two-RBI performance.

With the split, the Dans are now 12-13. Their next home contest is Tuesday against the Quincy Gems.

No comments: