Orange County finishes off sweep against Silver Sox

BY DARRELL MOODY

Appeal Sports Writer

RENO " The Reno Silver Sox showed plenty of grit offensively at Peccole Park Saturday night, but had nothing to show for it.

What they didn't show much of was pitching.

The Orange County Flyers battered Reno pitching for 20 runs and 26 hits to sweep a Golden Baseball League doubleheader Saturday night.

In the opener, D.J. Dixon's bases-loaded double tied the game at 10 in the bottom of the seventh, but the Flyers pushed across a run in the eighth on Jermy Acey's sacrifice fly for an 11-10 victory.

In the nightcap, Reno scored five times in the first inning, lost the lead two innings later, re-took the lead in the bottom of the sixth before allowing three seventh-inning runs and dropped a 9-7 decision.

Reno, 0-3, embarks on a five-game road trip to St. George which starts Tuesday night.

In the nightcap, Reno snapped a 6-all tie in the bottom of the sixth when ex-Nevada star Bub Madrid blooped a single over second base to score Shaughn Neal with the go-ahead score.

Kevin Fredericks, who had a couple of stints in the majors, allowed three runs in the top of the seventh before he could retire a batter. Jeff LaRue doubled home two runs and Buddy Morales singled home the third run. Fredericks retired the next three hitters, but the damage was done.

John Hattig led off the Reno seventh with a walk, but was forced at second by Juan Senreiso. Brett Flowers rolled to second, Senreiso taking third. Steven Wright popped to right to end the game.

Madrid, Neal and Andre Alvarado collected two hits apiece for Reno.

The first game started on a promising note for the Silver Sox.

Hattig singled home Madrid, who opened the Reno first with a double.

The Flyers' Mark Okano tied the game at 1 with a run-scoring double in the second, and Pat Breen made it 2-1 in the third.

Okano came up with the second of his three big hits in the fourth, slamming a two-run homer to score Sean Lorentz, who had doubled. After an infield out, Dave Bacani singled, moved to second on an error and scored ahead of Acey's homer to deep right to make it 6-2.

Reno sliced the deficit to 6-4 thanks to a double by catcher Gilbert Guilin.

Okano struck again in the fifth with a three-run homer to make it 9-4, setting the stage for a nice comeback by the Silver Sox. Okano went 3-for-4 with six RBI.

Guilin slammed a two-run homer to make it 9-6 after six.

Orange County sent Dane De La Rosa in to close out the game, and he was the victim of bad support.

Hattig reached on an error and Senreiso walked. After a strikeout, Will Henderson's groundball to second was misplayed, allowing Hattig to score to make it 9-7. Ryan Crespi walked to load the bases, and Dixon followed with his bases-clearing double to send the game into extra innings.

In the eighth, Mike Jacobellis singled, moved around to third on a two-base throwing error by Guilin and scored on a sacrifice fly by Acey, who drove in three runs.

Guilin and Flowers led Reno with two hits each.