Thursday, July 16, 1998
Goldpanners rally
By Al Chase
past Movers
Star-BulletinHawaii Island Movers head coach Kallen Miyataki might take a minute to conduct a sign check with his players before tonight's game.
Two missed hit-and-run signs in the second inning last night nullified a scoring threat. The first miss resulted in a Mover being thrown out at third. After the second miss, the runner at first base was picked off.
Hawaii (4-16) built a 5-2 lead, but patience paid off for the Alaska Goldpanners of Fairbanks. They rallied for four seventh-inning runs and a 6-5 Alaska Baseball League win at Rainbow Stadium.
And, for the second consecutive night, the Goldpanners relief pitching was superb.
Jeremy Cook, a 6-foot-6, 250-pound right-hander from San Diego State, retired all six Movers he faced. Aaron Heilman, a 6-4, 210-pound right-hander from Notre Dame and the last pitcher cut from the USA Baseball team, closed things out in the ninth to earn the save.
Joe Smith started for the Movers and said he felt pretty good. His success through the first six innings was the result of keeping his pitches down. Fourteen of the first 18 Goldpanners retired were put out at first base.
"I have to keep my pitches down. I don't have the velocity or the stuff to blow people away," said Smith, who is transferring from Texas Tech to Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo this fall.
"I haven't pitched many innings this summer, so my goal was to go six. I just ran out of gas."
A one-out walk and two singles produced one Alaska run in the seventh. That brought Miyataki to the mound for a talk with Smith.
"He told me to relax, to take control of the game," Smith said.
"I thought he was picking up his rhythm and Dane (Sardinha, the Movers' catcher) agreed," Miyataki said. "I just told Joe to slow it down a bit. But, they hit the ball when it counted."
Chris Circuit (Brigham Young), who was 6-for-17 in the series, fanned for the second out. But San Diego State's Paul Lockhart, also 6-for-17, lined a 1-1 pitch into the right-field corner for a two-run double.
Kalani graduate Shane Komine, who is headed for Nebraska, came on in relief. He surrendered a game-winning RBI single to John Salter on a 3-2 pitch. Komine finished the game by striking out three of the last four batters.
Billy Jacobson (Stanford), Lon Yamaguchi (New Mexico) and Scooter Martines (Texas Tech) each had two hits for the Movers. Jacobson, who was told by the Cardinal coaches to work on both his pitching and hitting this summer, lined balls down the right-field line good for a double and triple.
The Movers' leadoff hitter said, "I was looking for a fastball on the first pitch of the game (double) and just trying to move the runner over the next time (triple)."
With starting pitchers in short supply after five games in four days, Miyataki isn't sure who will take the mound tonight.
"I think it's going to be by committee," he said.
The Island Movers are 7-18 overall this summer.
Goldpanners 6, Movers 5
Alaska Hawaii ab r h bi ab r h bi Cervenak 3b 5 2 2 1 Jacobson rf 4 2 2 1 Circuit ss 4 0 1 0 Yamaguchi ss 4 2 2 1 Lockhart cf 5 2 2 2 Kimura dh 4 0 1 0 Salter c 4 0 2 3 Sardinha c 4 0 1 1 Besco 1b 3 0 0 0 Omori lf-2b 4 0 0 0 Porzel lf 4 0 0 0 Martines 1b-lf 4 0 2 0 Nettles rf 4 0 0 0 Waugh 3b 2 0 0 0 Rymes dh 3 1 2 0 Kitamura 2b 2 0 1 0 Correa 2b 4 1 1 0 Okimoto ph-1b 1 0 0 0 Okano cf 3 1 1 0 Totals 36 6 10 6 Totals 32 5 10 3 Alaska 101 000 400--6 Hawaii 202 001 000--5E-Salter.DP-Alaska 1 (Circuit-Correa-Besco). LOB-Alaska 6, Hawaii 2.
2B-Circuit, Lockhart 2, Jacobson, Yamaguchi. 3B-Jacobson. SB-Kimura, Okano, Yamaguchi. CS-Kimura, Kitamura, Waugh. SH-Circuit, Waugh.
IP H R ER BB SO Steele (W) 6 9 5 4 0 2 Cook 2 0 0 0 0 0 Heilman (Sv) 1 1 0 0 0 0 Smith (L) 6-2/3 8 6 6 1 4 Komine 2-1/3 2 0 0 1 3WP-Steele. HBP-Waugh (by Steele). T-2:29. A-212.
