BAL baseball
Bulldogs silence Warriors
Baseball: Morrisville at Bristol
Baseball, Morrisville at Bristol. Morrisville's Zack McIntyre (top) is tagged out by Bristol third baseman Brandon Newcomb as he tries to steal third base in the first inning.
Posted: Friday, April 13, 2012 5:00 am | Updated: 7:05 am, Fri Apr 13, 2012.
BRISTOL — For the first seven games, Bristol had basically been tearing the cover off the ball. The Warriors scored 76 runs in those seven games, an average of 10.9.But Thursday afternoon, it was pretty quiet on the Warriors’ home field. Mostly, above the wind, you heard the pop of Morrisville left-handed pitcher Eric Wilcox’s deliveries into the catcher’s mitt, or the Bulldogs exhorting each other after making a defensive play.Bristol’s offense normally wears pitchers down. Wilcox outlasted the Warriors and outfoxed them, going the seven-inning distance to lead Morrisville to an important 5-2 victory over its Bicentennial Athletic League archrival.
“I just wanted to come out and do my best,” said Wilcox, a senior and gifted all-around athlete who was also an all-conference football player. “We lost to them in football and I wanted payback.”
“I could tell he was fired up on the bus,” said first-year Morrisville coach Stephen Cavin.
Wilcox struck out eight while scattering six hits and walking four. Bristol’s pitching, meanwhile, suffered some control issues, with a four-walk third inning by starter Kelvin Ortiz leading to a four-run inning for the Bulldogs, who had only two hits in that frame.
Joe Sesar greeted reliever Derek Bradeis with an RBI single to left for the go-ahead run (2-1) in the third. Another walk and a single by Kevin Munoz, driving in Wilcox, made it 4-1.
Morrisville, considered a preseason league contender along with Bristol, improved to 4-3 overall and 3-3 in the BAL.
“We didn’t play good at all and they did,” said Bristol coach Tony Mangiaracina, whose squad also committed errors in three of the last four innings, the last one helping set up a run in the seventh. “They deserved to win. My pitcher can’t walk the batters he walked.”
Bristol (5-2, 3-1 BAL), which had taken a 1-0 lead in the second on Collin Malone’s single driving in Mike Petrino, would get only one more run, that coming on Dylan Evert’s solo homer in the seventh.
Wilcox battled, got out of jams and pitched consistently well.
Bristol had two runners on in the first, but Wilcox fanned the last two batters.
In the second, good defense minimized the damage; third baseman Evan Piscopo tagged out Malone at third on a fielder’s choice, and Wilcox struck out the dangerous Evert to end the inning.
In the third with that three-run lead, Wilcox got through the middle of the Bristol order, then escaped trouble in the fourth. After walking the first two batters, he made a good play on a comeback grounder to the mound, tossing to third for another tag out.
For the final out of the inning, with the bases loaded, he got Bristol slugger Derek Whitfield to check-swing a soft grounder to him, prompting a force out at the plate.
“He’s a good pitcher,” Mangiaracina said. “And he’s a smart pitcher. He knows what to throw and how to locate it.”
“The deeper he goes in a game, the harder he throws,” Cavin said.
Asked if he got tired, Wilcox smiled and reasoned, “It’s the Bristol game. I was pumped up the whole game. The goal was to go seven innings.”
Wilcox gave props to his teammates’ defense, and both Wilcox and Piscopo got a nod for their offensive work in the seventh. Wilcox, an excellent cleanup hitter who went 2-for-4 with a double, singled in the seventh and scored an insurance run on Piscopo’s groundout.
It was all quite a difference from the day before, when the Bulldogs were trounced 14-4 by Delco Christian.
“I told (the team) yesterday we took a step back,” Cavin said. “I told them today that we took two steps forward.”
“I just wanted to come out and do my best,” said Wilcox, a senior and gifted all-around athlete who was also an all-conference football player. “We lost to them in football and I wanted payback.”
“I could tell he was fired up on the bus,” said first-year Morrisville coach Stephen Cavin.
Wilcox struck out eight while scattering six hits and walking four. Bristol’s pitching, meanwhile, suffered some control issues, with a four-walk third inning by starter Kelvin Ortiz leading to a four-run inning for the Bulldogs, who had only two hits in that frame.
Joe Sesar greeted reliever Derek Bradeis with an RBI single to left for the go-ahead run (2-1) in the third. Another walk and a single by Kevin Munoz, driving in Wilcox, made it 4-1.
Morrisville, considered a preseason league contender along with Bristol, improved to 4-3 overall and 3-3 in the BAL.
“We didn’t play good at all and they did,” said Bristol coach Tony Mangiaracina, whose squad also committed errors in three of the last four innings, the last one helping set up a run in the seventh. “They deserved to win. My pitcher can’t walk the batters he walked.”
Bristol (5-2, 3-1 BAL), which had taken a 1-0 lead in the second on Collin Malone’s single driving in Mike Petrino, would get only one more run, that coming on Dylan Evert’s solo homer in the seventh.
Wilcox battled, got out of jams and pitched consistently well.
Bristol had two runners on in the first, but Wilcox fanned the last two batters.
In the second, good defense minimized the damage; third baseman Evan Piscopo tagged out Malone at third on a fielder’s choice, and Wilcox struck out the dangerous Evert to end the inning.
In the third with that three-run lead, Wilcox got through the middle of the Bristol order, then escaped trouble in the fourth. After walking the first two batters, he made a good play on a comeback grounder to the mound, tossing to third for another tag out.
For the final out of the inning, with the bases loaded, he got Bristol slugger Derek Whitfield to check-swing a soft grounder to him, prompting a force out at the plate.
“He’s a good pitcher,” Mangiaracina said. “And he’s a smart pitcher. He knows what to throw and how to locate it.”
“The deeper he goes in a game, the harder he throws,” Cavin said.
Asked if he got tired, Wilcox smiled and reasoned, “It’s the Bristol game. I was pumped up the whole game. The goal was to go seven innings.”
Wilcox gave props to his teammates’ defense, and both Wilcox and Piscopo got a nod for their offensive work in the seventh. Wilcox, an excellent cleanup hitter who went 2-for-4 with a double, singled in the seventh and scored an insurance run on Piscopo’s groundout.
It was all quite a difference from the day before, when the Bulldogs were trounced 14-4 by Delco Christian.
“I told (the team) yesterday we took a step back,” Cavin said. “I told them today that we took two steps forward.”
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