L.I. DUCKS ~ Mike Loree Emerges As Atlantic League's Best Hurler

From the desk of:  THE WEBBED SPIKES NINE

Long Island Ducks:  Mike Loree Continues His Domination of the Atlantic League.  Ducks Add A Full Game To Their First Place Lead.



In Lancaster, Ducks' hurler Mike Loree added another sparkling start to his 2011 resume as Long Island won the first game of a three game series against the Barnstormers by a final score of 5-3.


J.R. House homered for Long Island in the 5th inning for the first run of the game.  Kennard Jones and Ray Navarrete starting things off for the Ducks in the 6th with back-to-back lead-off singles.  Javier Colina and John Rodriguez drove them in with another pair of consecutive singles to put Long Island ahead 3-0 after six full innings.


Tying his longest start of the season, Mike Loree came out to pitch the seventh and faced three batters.  After a lead-off single and a fly out to center field, Mike Loree hit the next batter.  That prompted a visit from Coach Baez who made a move to the bullpen calling on Jeremy Hill for relief.  The Barnstormers loaded the bases against Hill, and brought a run home with a sac fly to break the shut-out.  That run was charged to Loree.  Jeremy Hill kept the Ducks out of further trouble by striking out the next batter for out number three.


Long Island picked up two insurance runs in the top of the eighth with a two out rally.  John Rodriguez drew a walk.  He scored on Matt Esquivel's double.  The next Ducks' batter, Matt Padget drove Esquivel home with a single upping Long Island's lead; 5-1.



Jeremy Hill pitched himself into trouble in the bottom of the eighth inning by allowing the first two batters to reach base with no outs.  After getting one out, Jeremy surrendered a single allowing Lancaster to plate their second run.  Lancaster's park helped the Ducks when it held a Terry Tiffee (DH-Lancaster) blast from leaving the park.  The Barnstormers were held to one run scoring on that blast off the wall but the spread on the scoreboard was closing.


Coach Baez made his way to the mound again and gave Jeremy Hill the hook with the score at 5-3.
Ehren Wasserman was called in by Coach to get the Ducks out of this jam.  Wasserman got the second out of the inning by striking out his first batter.  Wasserman completed the job by inducing the next batter into a ground out to short.


Ducks' closer, Bubbie Buzachero, was called upon to close the ninth inning.


Give the bullpen credit tonight even though they made things very interesting.  Jeremy Hill pitched the Ducks out of Mike Loree's jam in the seventh.  Ehren Wasserman got them out of Jeremy Hill's jam in the eighth.  And Buzachero made things most interesting of all.  After getting the first two outs, he allowed the next two batters to get on base.  That brought the potential winning run to the plate.  Javier Colina had trouble handling a blast to short, but composed himself to record the last out of the game and preserving a well pitched game by Mike Loree.  Mr. Excitement; Bubbie Buzachero; managed his 8th save of the season.



MIKE LOREE's LINE:
6.1 ~ innings pitched
3 ~ hits.
1 ~ run.
2 ~ walks.
9 ~ strikeouts.

SEASON RECORD: 
6 wins;  1 loss



Tonight's effort by Mike Loree now ties him for the CanAm League lead in wins with six while also lowering his already League leading ERA from 2.25 down to 2.18.  After nine strikeouts tonight, he now has 48 for the season which also now places him first in the Atlantic League.  A tremendous start to a season for a guy cashing in on a second chance continues.


Long Island and South Maryland started Tuesday evening with the Ducks in front by a mere half game.  Tonight's win coupled with the South Maryland Blue Crabs' loss to Camden increases Long Island's first place lead in the Liberty Division to 1.5 games. 



This was Long Island's third consecutive win.  They are 8-2 in their last ten games.



Bridgeport fell to 4 games back in the standings and are losing a rain delayed game 4-2 to the Road Warriors in the sixth inning as of this post time.







Mike.BTB