L.I. Ducks: Look What Bridgeport Did to the Flock, Again

From the desk of:  THE WEBBED SPIKES NINE

Bridgeport leads Ferry Cup Series 6-1

I - BPT 10; LID 2

II - BPT 9; LID 0

III - BPT 7; LID 6

IV - LID 5; BPT 2

V - BPT 7; LID 3

VI - BPT 9; LID 7

VII - BPT 3; LID 2
VIII - Friday Night

Long Island Ducks: Bridgeport Continues Giving Flock the Bunker Fish Treatment.

Not hear; not tonight; the Bluefish said ten was enough.

After sweeping a pair of four game series from the Camden Riversharks and Southern Maryland Blue Crabs, the Long Island Ducks had their league high 10 game winning streak snapped by the Bluefish Thursday night at the Ballpark at Harbor Yards.

A costly error by Lew Ford in the 5th inning of Thursday's series opener provided Bridgeport's margin of victory.

Not incidentally, it was Lew Ford who opened the scoring with an RBI single in the 1st.  Reegie Corona then scored on DH Randy Ruiz's ground ball to give the Ducks an early 2-0 lead.

Bridgeport got on the board in the bottom of the 3rd.  A lead-off single by shortstop Matt Wessinger off Ducks starter Ian Marshall, and a 1-out single by third sacker Sean Burroughs set up right fielder Welington Dotel's RBI sac-fly.  In the 4th, second baseman Luis Rodriguez led-off with a double off Marshall, and shortly scored on left fielder Jake Luce's ground ball put-out, tying the game at two.

In the fateful 5th, first baseman John Alonso stroked a 1-out single of Marshall.  With 2-outs, Lew Ford misplayed DH Frazier Hall's hit for a 2-base error.  Alonso scored the go ahead, and inevitably the winning run on the play.

Starting pitcher Ian Marshal battled himself over 6.2 innings pitched walking 6 batters, but otherwise allowed a pair of earned runs on 4 hits with 5 strikeouts.  He now owns a 3-2 record in 8 starts, with a 2.54 ERA (10th in the Atlantic League).

The Ducks fell to the Bluefish for the 6th time in 7 meetings this season.

With Thursday's victory, the 3rd place Bluefish improved their record to a 19-26 mark.  They've scored the 2nd least runs in the Atlantic League this season, yet are 2nd in team batting and feature 10 of the league's top 10 hitters.

They especially love hitting against the Ducks.  In their 7 games thus far, the Bluefish have nearly doubled Long Island's output, outscoring them by a 47-25 margin, or, 6.7 runs per game against just 3.5 runs per game for the Ducks.

Bridgeport's staff owns the league's 3rd worst ERA, and the 2nd worst WHiP.  Just don't tell the Ducks.  In 3 of their 7 losses against the Fish, Long Island was shut out once and held to just 2 runs on two other occasions, including Thursday's game.

This all means the Ducks had better get the Bluefish figured out, and quick.  Long Island has 7 more games remaining against Bridgeport prior to what's shaping up as their first-half ending showdown against Somerset over the 4th of July weekend.

Long Island's 10 game winning streak nevertheless cut the Somerset Patriots lead to just 2.5 games (down from 5 games back) in the standings.  However, Somerset defeated the Barnstormers Thursday night to reset their division lead at 3 games over the Ducks.

FLOCK FRACKERS:

Lew Ford still leads the Atlantic League with 16 doubles and 39 RBI.  He's 3rd with a .511 slugging mark, 4th with a .324 batting average, and 5th with a .403 OBP.   Jon Griffin is 2nd behind Ford with 36 RBI, and is 2nd in the league with 8 home runs.  Ford and Griffin are the only two league players to surpass 30 RBI so far this season.

Setting the table for them is lead-off batter Bryan Sabatella.  He tops the the league with 200 at-bats, 61 hits, 39 runs scored, and 15 stolen bases.  He presently sports a .305 average and .359 OBP.



Mike