Better Luck Tomorrow

BRISTOL, Va. – Bristol White Sox manager Ryan Newman figures he’s seen enough improvement from his team in the past two weeks to cut his players a little slack after a rough Friday night at DeVault Stadium.

And, as he briefly mulled over an 11-3 loss to the Bluefield Orioles, he offered bit of thanks for the beauty of baseball: There’s almost always another game tomorrow.

“These games here, you try to forget about them,” Newman said. “We play every day, which is a good thing when it comes to games like this. We’ll forget about tonight and move on to tomorrow.

“I look at the past week and a half to two weeks, and I see a lot of improvement. One bad night … hats off to them, they beat us good tonight. That’s really all I can say. Hopefully, we’ll go to Danville and take it out on them tomorrow.”

The Orioles, who had scored just seven runs in as many games through the opener of this three-game series, found their hitting strokes in the last two games.
They pound out 15 hits Friday night to go along with the 11 they collected on Thursday during a 10-6 win.

Meanwhile, the BriSox, who had won seven of their previous 10 games before dropping the last two games of this series, did little at the plate against two Bluefield pitchers.

By the time lead-off batter Ryan Lee manufactured Bristol’s first run in the bottom of the third – he was safe on an error, moved to second on a passed ball, went to third on a fielder’s choice and scored on a wild pitch – Bluefield already had nine runs on the board.

Bristol added a run in the fourth on back-to-back doubles off the right-field wall by Leighton Pangilinan and Jose Fulgencio and added one more in the ninth on a walk and singles by A.J. Casario and Lee.

The Orioles did most of their scoring against Bristol starter Charles Delk, who allowed nine runs on as many hits in 2 2/3 innings. The big blast for Bluefield was a three-run home run in the second inning by right fielder Luis Ramirez.

One bright spot for the BriSox was stellar pitching by three relievers: Brent DeFoor, who went 3 1/3 innings; Phil Negus, who pitched two; and, Alex Farotto,
who pitched the ninth. Negus gave up two runs, but neither was earned.

“They gave us what you want out of your relievers,” Newman said. “DeFoor came in and gave us some innings that we needed right there. Phil did a nice job for his two. Ferotto done what he’s done all year: He threw strikes. That’s their job. They picked us up.”

The BriSox head out on their first extended road trip of the season. They play three games in Danville and three in Burlington before wrapping up the swing with four games at Pulaski.

They play next at home July 28 against Greeneville.

Bluefield 234 000 110–11 15 1
Bristol 001 100 001–3 10 4
Bundy, Phelps (6) and Guerrero and Polanco (7); Delk, DeFoor (3), Negus (7), Farotto (9) and Gonzalez. WP–Bundy (2-3). LP–Delk (1-3). Sv–Phelps (1). HR–Ramirez (Blue), with 2 on in 2nd.