BRISTOL, Va. – Smackdown, beatdown, slaughter, massacre, annihilation, obliteration – any blowout term will do to describe the carnage that took place Thursday night at DeVault Stadium.
With every break going their way, the Bristol White Sox thrashed the Greeneville Astros 21-0, dominating the early Appalachian League West division leaders in a stunning, good old-fashioned butt-whipping.
“Nights like this don’t come around too often,” said BriSox manager Ryan Newman. “It’s nice not only for our pitching staff to go out there and throw a shutout, but our offense scores 21 runs – you don’t see this very often.”
The BriSox (4-6) blew the game open with a 12-run third inning capped off by a grand slam by designated hitter Michael Schwartz – more runs than the team had scored in an entire game so far in 2010.
Schwartz finished the night with three hits and a team-high six RBIs to lead the BriSox’s unrelenting offense.
“Everything was clicking tonight, pitching, defense, everything went our way,” Schwartz said.
The offensive fireworks were even more surprising as the Astros (7-3) arrived in Bristol having just polished off a three-game sweep of the Kingsport Mets in which their pitching staff gave up only three runs in the entire series.
“Everything we were swinging at we hit hard,” said Newman, whose team recorded 19 hits. “Even some of our outs were loud.”
While the BriSox were undoubtedly hot at the plate Wednesday, they also took advantage of a bevy of Greeneville blunders that kept Bristol runners circling the bases throughout the night.
Greeneville committed five errors in the game, including three in the 12-run third, but things didn’t really get absurd until Bristol’s half of the sixth when the BriSox, already leading 17-0, pushed across two more runs without the benefit of a hit.
Drew Lee struck out leading off the inning, but a wild pitch by Astros reliever Justin Harper on the third strike allowed Lee to reach first safely.
Harper then proceeded to fling four more wild pitches in the inning in the midst of walking and hitting another batter. After Lee had already trotted home from third, John Spatola scored on the final wild pitch of the inning when Harper’s toss caromed off catcher Bubby Williams’ shinguard, sending the ball sailing over the backstop and into the seats.
Lost in the offensive outburst was a strong performance by Bristol starter Jacob Petricka, a second-round draft pick out of Indiana State who picked up his first professional win with five innings of one-hit ball.
“He’s a great arm,” Newman said. “We can tell why we picked him in the second round. ... If he keeps throwing like that he might not be here very long.”
Until Jhonny Medrano led off the eighth inning with a double for the Astros, the BriSox pitchers had faced the minimum 21 batters as Medrano’s second-inning single, the only hit for Greeneville up to that point, had immediately been erased by a double play.
Former Tennessee High star Marcus Nidiffer, now an Astros first baseman, had a rough homecoming in his first professional game in Bristol, striking out twice in an 0-for-3 performance.
Three BriSox pitchers allowed no walks and the Bristol defense played errorless ball until a harmless mistake in the ninth. After Bristol’s monster third inning, Petricka retired the Astros in the top of the fourth on just six pitches.
The BriSox’s charmed night was epitomized by a play in the top of the sixth when a hard hit grounder off the bat of Bryce Lane bounced off the glove off Bristol third baseman Rangel Ravelo only to land right in the hands of shortstop Tyler Saladino who promptly hurled the ball to first to beat Lane by a step.
Despite all that went right Thursday, Newman said it’ll be important for the BriSox to avoid a letdown for the rest of the series.
“These guys are starting to learn the system,” he said, “and hopefully we can just build on this and continue to play well.”
nhubbard@bristolnews.com | Twitter: @Hubbard_BHCSprt | (276) 645-2543
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