|
ARIZONA SERIES: GAME 3
Mesa sent Roland Radtke to the mound and Tucson started Matt Bastow in game 3. Bastow had really struggled so far in the postseason but the Turtles needed him to be good if they were to avoid falling behind 3-0 in the series.
Both pitchers were very good early. There was only one base runner for either team through two innings.
With one out in the top of the 3rd, Tucson put together a threat. Andy Lepore, Ben McDaniel, and Steve Guilfoyle got three consecutive singles to load the bases. They were unable to score though, as Radtke was able to get a couple of well placed grounders that turned into fielder’s choices.
The Turtles finally were able to break through in the 5th. Elijah Leggett lined a single to right center to drive in one and Steve Stoddard singled to drive in two more.
Matt Bracken came to the plate with a man on in the 6th and slammed a home run to center to bring the Spiders back within one.
Stoddard led off the 8th with a 446 ft bomb to right center field, putting Mesa in the lead 4-2.
George Luedtke led off the bottom of the 9th with a single. Kyle Vault then reached on an error to get the tying run on base against reliever Gregg Sheridan. Aaron Boeck worked the count full and drew a walk. The bases were loaded with no outs.
Jin Simon stepped to the plate. He got ahead in the count 2-0 angot the fastball he was hoping for. He just missed it and lifted it high into shallow right field. Too shallow for Luedtke to try to tag up.
Next up was Ian Fraser.
He fouled the first pitch straight back.
He hit the next pitch on the ground to Lepore at short. He scooped it up and threw to second for one out. Sausser turned to throw to first. Fraser was running hard. The throw beat him to first and the Turtles had won the game.
The score was Turtles 4-Spiders 2. Mesa led the Arizona Series 2-1. Game 4 would be in Mesa.
Steve Stoddard went 3-5 with with 1 home run, 1 run, and 3 RBI.
|