RENO- The Reno Silver Sox filled up their 22-man roster on Sunday and got a chance to see how a pair of their new acquisitions performed under fire on a 100-plus degree day at Peccole Park.
Starting pitcher Adam Harendza and reliever Eric Brock had respectable showings, but the Silver Sox were unable to overcome a four-run third inning and lost, 5-4, to the Orange County Flyers.
With the win, the Flyers moved into third-place and ahead of the fourth-place Silver Sox, who lost two games of the three-game set and will now head to Orange County for another three-game series with Flyers.
Orange County moved to 6-6 in the second half of the Golden Baseball League season and dropped Reno to 5-6 and 23-25 overall. The Sox are four games behind first-place Yuma, the first-half GBL champions.
Reno signed right-handed pitcher Chris Saenz to fill its roster. The 25-year-old Saenz reached the major leagues in 2004, where he played one game for the Brewers, going six innings and giving up two hits, three walks and striking out seven.
The 6-foot-3, 225 pound Saenz, of Phoenix, most recently played for the Angels' Double-A affiliate in Arkansas, where he went 1-7 with an 8.40 earned run average.
As for Harendza, 0-1, who played for Division III Oswego (N.Y.) before more recently seeing action for the now folded New York State League, it was a matter of getting his first start out of the way.
"I was definitely nervous at the beginning of the game," said Harendza, of Binghamton, N.Y. "I had one bad inning. There's definitely a lot better competition here (in the GBL). It's definitely a lot better than in the New York State League."
Harendza went four innings, spreading out eight hits and two walks and striking out three. The 6-foot, 185-pound righty gave up all of his four runs in the third.
Reno took a 1-0 lead in the second inning on an RBI double by first baseman/hitting coach Mike Done (2-for-4, 1 RBI) before Orange County sent eight batters to the plate in the third.
Bret Levier tied the score with an RBI double before designated hitter Rich Pohle belted a two-run homer to left. A Buddy Morales RBI double capped off the inning for the Flyers.
"(In the third) I was leaving up the ball a little bit," Harendza said. "(Pitching coach Dusty) Berg(man) came out to talk to me and told me to get it down a little bit. I've never ever come close to this level of baseball. Hopefully I can adjust and get better - learn from whomever - the players and the hitters."
OC starter Daniel Arizmendi (2-2) took the win, going six innings and allowing two runs, four hits, seven walks and striking out eight. Nick Casanova picked up his second save of the season in one inning of work.
Jason Howerton and Ezequiel Ruvalcaba saw a combined two innings for Orange County, with Howerton giving up four hits.
OC second baseman Scott Goodman (2-for-4, 1 RBI and 2 runs scored) jacked his second homer in as many games to give the Flyers a 5-3 lead in the eighth.
"Goody came through with a big home run at the end," said OC manager and former major league Garry Templeton. "We're trying to pick it up. We're hurting from when we lost our third baseman (Hector Zamora, who was kicked out of the league for grabbing an umpire) and two pitchers. The last two weeks have been a struggle. We've got to get back on track to win this thing.
"I think our pitchers got off to a rough start, but settled in and threw strikes. They got some off-speed pitches in. They gave us a chance to get back in the game, then we came through with a couple of hits."
Catcher Masa Chikazawa cut the lead to 4-2 with a sacrifice fly in the third for Reno, which stranded 11 runners in the game (to OC's seven).
Reno designated hitter Juan Senreiso continued his torrid pace, hitting safely in his 14th consecutive game. Chico's Steve Boggs hit safely in 18 consecutive games earlier in the season.
Senreiso (2-for-4, 1 RBI) hit a seventh-inning single to bring in Victor Hall and close the gap to 4-3.
"He's seeing the ball good and he eventually makes adjustments," Reno manager Les Lancaster said of Senreiso's streak. "He's aggressive. When they make a mistake, he'll hit the pitch."
With the Sox trailing 5-3 in the ninth, Senreiso hit a double off Casanova, giving Reno two runners with no outs.
After left fielder Kane Simmons (2-for-5) struck out, former University of Nevada star Bub Madrid brought in Hall with a fielder's choice to make it 5-4 with two outs, but Casanova induced Ryan Kowalski into a comebacker to end the game.
Josh Evans also saw four innings for Reno, allowing one run, two hits, two walks and struck out two. Brock allowed one hit in the ninth.
Overall, Lancaster said he was impressed with his two new pitchers.
"Definitely so. Adam pitched a good game," Lancaster said. "He had one bad inning and three quality innings. I got to see Brock. I got to see strikes and him coming right at them. I'm pleased with what I saw from a pitching standpoint."
Reno will begin its three-game road series with the Flyers on Tuesday.
"It's not a good schedule," Lancaster said. "We get these guys (the Flyers) back to back. We'll definitely get to know each other. We'll see their other two starters and they'll see ours."