Strong start carries Martella’s to victory

BY MIKE MASTOVICH
The Tribune-Democrat

July 18, 2008 11:42 pm

— Martella’s Pharmacy produced three hits and two runs in the top of the first inning Friday night against MCS Bulldogs.
The offense wasn’t quite as potent the rest of the game – Martella’s had only one more hit. But the AAABA League leaders still did enough to win the early game at Point Stadium, 6-0.
“They kept us off balance,” Martella’s manager Chris Pfeil said. “We weren’t super disciplined. We hit a lot of hard balls, but they were right at people. Getting the two runs early was a big boost for us. James Podgorney was effective and he pitched a great game for us.”
Left-hander Podgorney blanked the Bulldogs, striking out five while scattering six hits and a walk. Bulldogs lefty Matt Mangery didn’t allow another hit after the first inning, and reliever Andrew Fitzpatrick gave up only one hit in two innings.
But the Bulldogs were hurt by eight walks and an error.
“We just had too many walks,” Bulldogs manager Matt Duval said. “You can’t give that many free bases. On the scoreboard we had more hits than them, but they didn’t walk us and that’s the story right there.”
Martella’s No. 2 batter, Josh Campanella, doubled and scored on Jake Oswalt’s single in the first. Casey Teagarden singled home Oswalt.
“We definitely wanted to get ahead early,” Campanella said. “Anybody can beat you any day in baseball. We wanted to get a quick lead. We got two runs in the first and kept on going.”
Campanella and Oswalt each scored three times to account for all six runs.
Oswalt had two singles and two walks.
“We want to jump out ahead of them and get a good start,” Oswalt said. “We learned the whole year if we get runs and put the ball in play, if you put pressure on teams, they’ll make mistakes. We wanted to keep building off of that, but (Mangery and Fitzpatrick) kept us off balance. We had some runners on but we couldn’t get the big hit that would have blew it open.”
Podgorney stranded Bulldogs runners on the corners in the third inning, and on second and third with one out in the fourth – an inning in which Mark Saxman singled and Dylan Snowberger doubled off the screen. The Bulldogs left six on base.
“They got that early lead and our guys got down a little bit,” Duval said. “It’s been a long season. But you’ve still got to execute when you get runners in scoring position.”