RENO - Les Lancaster was conspicuous by his absence from the Reno Silver Sox dugout Thursday night.
Instead of directing the team from the field, Lancaster watched the game from the press box. The company line was that Lancaster was up there to evaluate players, but since the first-half pennant had already been clinched, he also may have been up there to keep an eye on the press box personnel given last week's incident in the press box involving San Diego manager Terry Kennedy.
Maybe it was Lancaster's absence. Maybe it was the small crowd which was announced at 1,009 but was considerably less. Maybe it was Chris Marini's rough start which put the Sox in a huge five-run hole right off the bat. Maybe it was the blahs after winning the first-half title two nights ago.
Whatever it was, there appeared to be a lack of overall energy on the field in Reno's 9-5 Golden Baseball League loss to Yuma at Peccole Park.
"I don't think it was the blahs," Reno designated hitter Doug Gredvig said. "We took two out of three. The crowd was kind of small (and quiet).
"Their guy (Ryan Amason) had pretty good stuff, but we were still getting a little offense off of him."
Reno scored three in the third and two in the fifth off Amason. Other than that, the Sox got a runner to third once and runners to second twice in the other seven innings against Amason and relievers Jared Terrebonne and Walt Nolen.
Meanwhile, Marini struggled from the outset, surrendering five runs in the first two innings.
In the first inning, Kalen Norton and Billy Malone walked. Juan LeBron singled home Norton, and Jacob Guzman followed with a three-run homer, his fourth of the season.
Billy Kovatch opened the second with a double to right-center field. Marini retired the next hitter and Henry Calderon followed with a single to right field for a 5-0 lead.
"I didn't have the command," said Marini, who walked four batters, three of whom scored during the game. "You can't walk anybody in this park or you are going to get beat. You are going to give up homers in this park (because of the wind), but the walks are big."
"It wasn't as strong an outing as his last few starts," said pitching coach Mike Hartley, who ran the team for Lancaster. "It's tough to throw in this ballpark. A couple of calls go his way or he picks off the runner in the first and it could have been a different ballgame."
Marini settled down after the second, allowing only a run and three hits over the next five innings.
"I was working more inside and trying to set up the change-up on the outside part of the plate. I wasn't hitting my spots inside early and guys were able to sit on the outside pitch."
Amason, who retired the first six batters he faced, ran into trouble in the third, as Reno cut the deficit to 5-3.
The Silver Sox collected four straight hits after two outs. Rich Giannotti singled Bub Madrid to second, and James Shanks drilled a ball high off the batting eye in center for a two-run double. Marcus Jensen followed with a single to score Shanks. Edgar Varela singled Jensen to second, but Amason retired Gredvig to end the inning.
The Scorpions returned the two-out favor in the top of the fifth, stringing together a walk and two singles, the latter a run-scoring one-bagger by Ernie Pringle, to make it 6-3.
Reno trimmed the lead to 6-5 in the bottom of the inning when No. 9 hitter Evan Sobel singled. After two straight outs, Jensen drilled a two-out, two-run homer, his team-leading 10th of the year.
The Silver Sox had a chance to tie the game in the seventh when Giannotti reached on an error. Giannotti stole second and moved to third when the Yuma catcher threw the ball into centerfield. Amason induced Shanks to roll out to short to end the threat.
Both starters left in the eighth, and Yuma took advantage of the absence of top relievers Nate Sevier (disabled list) and Scott Schneider (sore arm) to score three runs off Nat Harris, who was the victim of two fielding miscues to start the inning and was unable to pitch over the mistakes.
"They both have had sore arms lately," said Hartley. "They were a big part of our team's success in the first half."
Notes: Reno opens a three-game series tonight at 6:35 against the San Diego Surf Dawgs ... Madrid appeared to pull a hamstring trying to leg out a groundball to short in the sixth inning and was replaced by Mike Done ... Carson High grad Nate White umpired the bases.