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Stallworth's contract terminated
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Buckeyes grab 18 players on signing day
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Garfield at Buchtel basketball
All Da King's Men:
Palin At The Tea Party Convention
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Republican Pre-Conditions
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Citizens United v. F.E.C. (Part 4): Kennedy's and O'Connor's Basic Approaches to Constitutional Decisionmaking – Top Down and Bottom Up
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Collector Car Hobby Loses One of the Best—Jim Roll
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Decisions Decisions: Credit Cards or Your Mortgage?
Ohio Travels with Betty:
Loucile is looking for a Lake Erie getaway in June for three kids, ages 1, 3, and 5.
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Talk of the Town – Top entertainment picks for the weekend
HRLite House:
Track HR Research
Akron Gamer:
Makers of 'Castle Crashers' unveil 'BattleBlock Theater'
See Jane Style:
Do IT this week: Layering
By Stephanie Storm
Beacon Journal sports writer
POSTED: 11:32 p.m. EDT, Sep 18, 2009
The Defenders will live to see another game.
Connecticut staved off elimination in Game 3 of the Eastern League Championship Series Friday night at Canal Park, topping the Aeros in an 8-7 nail-bitter. The victory allowed the Defenders to avoid a series sweep and to halt the Aeros' franchise-best 13-game winning streak.
The night was crisp but not the game — a combined 23 hits, eight walks and five errors saw to that.
The Aeros scored first with a run in the bottom of the first inning. Jose Constanza and Josh Rodriguez led off with back-to-back singles before Carlos Santana hit into a double play that scored Constanza.
The Defenders made Aeros starting pitcher Eric Berger work a lot in the second inning and seemed to rattle him.
Eddy Martinez-Esteve and Brad Boyer worked back-to-back walks, and Ramon Castro followed with a single to load the bases. Brandon Crawford's sacrifice fly to center scored Martinez-Esteve and a throwing error on Berger allowed Boyer to come home as the Defenders took a 2-1 lead.
Berger continued to struggle in the third inning, issuing another pair of walks and committing another error that led to another run.
Aeros catcher and Eastern League MVP Santana tied it with a two-run home run.
The host went ahead 4-3 on an error by third baseman Castro.
Connecticut knocked Berger from the game after he loaded the bases by giving up three consecutive singles to the bottom of the order — Crawford, Mike Mooney and Jackson Williams (whose hit was of the rolling bunt variety).
Aeros right-hander Erik Stiller was not much help in relief, as the Defenders continued to crank out the hits and four runs crossed the plate on five consecutive hits. Score it Connecticut 7-4.
Stiller restored some kind of order to the game in the top of the fifth inning when he sat the Defenders down in order for the first time since Berger had in the misleading first.
The Aeros inched within two runs in the fifth when Santana scored on Carlos Rivero's two-out base hit through the left side of the infield, but that was all the host would get despite two walks in the inning.
At that point, Connecticut manager Steve Decker began the usual merry-go-round game he employs with his pitching staff late in games.
After Lively came lefty Alex Hinshaw, right-hander Geivy Garcia, lefty Joe Patterson, righty Craig Whitaker and another left-hander in Matt Yourkin.
Decker went through three relievers in the eighth inning alone as the Aeros chipped away with another run, pulling them within 7-6 thanks to Jerad Head's triple and the second error of the night on Castro.
But this time Decker's matchup worked, as Yourkin got Akron's Santana and Beau Mills to strike out, leaving two men stranded. In the bottom of the inning, the Defenders added an insurance run.
With two outs, Boyer reached on a single and came home on Tyler LaTorre's pinch-hit double that fell between a pair of Akron players as left fielder Cristo Arnal (who had just come in the game for John Drennen, the Aeros right fielder who was ejected in the eighth inning) and shortstop Rivero collided in shallow left.
But the Aeros had one more rally in them. With one out, Lonnie Chisenhall reached on a single and scampered home when Rivero followed with a double to pull within a run. But after a 10-plus pitch at-bat, Head flied out to center.
Stephanie Storm can be reached at sstorm@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Indians and Aeros blog at http://www.ohio.com/tribematters.
The Defenders will live to see another game.
Connecticut staved off elimination in Game 3 of the Eastern League Championship Series Friday night at Canal Park, topping the Aeros in an 8-7 nail-bitter. The victory allowed the Defenders to avoid a series sweep and to halt the Aeros' franchise-best 13-game winning streak.
The night was crisp but not the game — a combined 23 hits, eight walks and five errors saw to that.
The Aeros scored first with a run in the bottom of the first inning. Jose Constanza and Josh Rodriguez led off with back-to-back singles before Carlos Santana hit into a double play that scored Constanza.
The Defenders made Aeros starting pitcher Eric Berger work a lot in the second inning and seemed to rattle him.
Eddy Martinez-Esteve and Brad Boyer worked back-to-back walks, and Ramon Castro followed with a single to load the bases. Brandon Crawford's sacrifice fly to center scored Martinez-Esteve and a throwing error on Berger allowed Boyer to come home as the Defenders took a 2-1 lead.
Berger continued to struggle in the third inning, issuing another pair of walks and committing another error that led to another run.
Aeros catcher and Eastern League MVP Santana tied it with a two-run home run.
The host went ahead 4-3 on an error by third baseman Castro.
Connecticut knocked Berger from the game after he loaded the bases by giving up three consecutive singles to the bottom of the order — Crawford, Mike Mooney and Jackson Williams (whose hit was of the rolling bunt variety).
Aeros right-hander Erik Stiller was not much help in relief, as the Defenders continued to crank out the hits and four runs crossed the plate on five consecutive hits. Score it Connecticut 7-4.
Stiller restored some kind of order to the game in the top of the fifth inning when he sat the Defenders down in order for the first time since Berger had in the misleading first.
The Aeros inched within two runs in the fifth when Santana scored on Carlos Rivero's two-out base hit through the left side of the infield, but that was all the host would get despite two walks in the inning.
At that point, Connecticut manager Steve Decker began the usual merry-go-round game he employs with his pitching staff late in games.
After Lively came lefty Alex Hinshaw, right-hander Geivy Garcia, lefty Joe Patterson, righty Craig Whitaker and another left-hander in Matt Yourkin.
Decker went through three relievers in the eighth inning alone as the Aeros chipped away with another run, pulling them within 7-6 thanks to Jerad Head's triple and the second error of the night on Castro.
But this time Decker's matchup worked, as Yourkin got Akron's Santana and Beau Mills to strike out, leaving two men stranded. In the bottom of the inning, the Defenders added an insurance run.
With two outs, Boyer reached on a single and came home on Tyler LaTorre's pinch-hit double that fell between a pair of Akron players as left fielder Cristo Arnal (who had just come in the game for John Drennen, the Aeros right fielder who was ejected in the eighth inning) and shortstop Rivero collided in shallow left.
But the Aeros had one more rally in them. With one out, Lonnie Chisenhall reached on a single and scampered home when Rivero followed with a double to pull within a run. But after a 10-plus pitch at-bat, Head flied out to center.
Stephanie Storm can be reached at sstorm@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Indians and Aeros blog at http://www.ohio.com/tribematters.
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