Suns perfect night moves

April 11, 2002|BY BOB PARASILITI

bobp@herald-mail.com

Sometimes, seemingly insignificant events end up paying huge dividends.

So Robbie Meyer legged out an infield single in the eighth. Big deal.

But when the 70-foot single comes in the eighth inning of an doubleheader nightcap, it's huge. Meyer's hustle turned into the winning run Wednesday night as the Hagerstown Suns took a 2-1 victory for a sweep of the Charleston Alley Cats. Brian Knoedler's RBI double in the 11th gave Hagerstown a 3-2 win in the opener.

"It was a pitching-dominated doubleheader," Suns manager Mike Ramsey said. "You don't know what play it will take to end it."

Meyer cued a Jeromie Spillman pitch off the end of the bat for a slow roller to short.

"I knew I had a good chance of beating it out," Meyer said. "It was hit just hard enough to get past the third baseman and make the shortstop throw on the run. I needed every inch of my 34-inch bat for that one."

Meyer beat Raul Tablado's throw by the step to be on first with none out in the 1-1 game. Meyer followed by breaking to second on a hit-and-run with Tyler Van Schell. Van Schell hit a grounder in the hole vacated by Manny Mayorson, who broke to cover second on Meyer's move.

The extra step turned Von Schell's roller into a diving try by Mayorson, which glanced off his glove, allowing Meyer to take third.

"I almost missed second base while trying to look back to see if the ball got through," Meyer said.

After Julian Benavidez struck out, Spillman uncorked a wild pitch to score Meyer with the game-winner.

"The key was the hit-and-run with Von Schell," Ramsey said. "It was well executed. We didn't do much with runners in scoring position tonight, but we stayed in there and got the extra breaks and capitalized on them."

Meyer provided the Suns' first run in the first off Charleston starter Eric Stephenson with a double before scoring on a pair of wild pitches. The Alley Cats (0-7) tied the game in the sixth on Jose Yepez's homer to left off reliever Benji Miller.

Anthony Yacco won the game in relief.

Knoedler put the finishing touches of the opener with his third double of the game in the 11th. Mark Walker led off with a single and took second on Leonel Cabrera's sacrifice bunt.

The Suns (4-3) scored two in the first when Derin McMains scored on a wild pitch. After Charleston took a 2-1 lead in the second, the Suns tied the game on Von Schell's RBI single.

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