1995 PLAYER / PITCHER OF THE WEEK #3

Krusty Rear (stagename Rusty Greer) gets things going in this game with a shot down the right field line against Jack McDowell in the 2nd inning to give the visitors the early 1-0 edge. The Sluggers add another a few batters later when Steel City starting pitcher John (Guy) Smiley lofts a ball just deep enough to centre field to allow Hampton alumnus Mickey Morandini to scamper home on the sac fly.

Shawn Dunston ground into a couple of double plays in the game, but one of them actually wasn’t entirely futile as it drove in a run in the 3rd inning as the Sluggers padded their lead to 3-0.

The Huskies scrabbled together one run with a flurry of singles in the 5th with the massively overachieving Jose Hernandez scoring on Brian McRae‘s single, but that was all that the team could manage against Smiley and Co.

Smiley went 6 strong to get the W and even his record at 1-1. He gave up six hits and a walk while fanning three. Darren Holmes got the last four outs of the game to earn his 2nd save of the young season.

Greer’s homer was his 2nd of the season.

The Sluggers once again scored early and once again is was Rusty Greer (3) doing the damage as he deposited a Orel Hershiser fastball into the cheap seats in the 2nd inning with Shawn Dunston aboard to give them a 2-0 lead.

That was all the Sluggers would manage against Hershiser who turned quite chincy the rest of the way as part of his 8-inning win. He wound up striking out six and walking just one in the contest.

Hampton evened the score in the 6th when BJ Surhoff (2) matched Greer’s earlier accomplishment on a hanging curve by Sluggers’ starter Jaime Navarro.

Navarro started the 8th, but disappeared and made way for John Habyan and Curtis Leskanic long before the dust settled.

The Hampton 8th consisted of a flurry of balls bouncing off the wall with each of Eric Young, Brian McRae and pinch hitter Al Martin giving the outfielders’ plenty of carom practice off the Huskies’ rubber outfield wall.

McRae, Doug Strange and Surhoff each drove in two for Hampton. Hershiser improved to 2-0 while Navarro stumbled to 0-2.

Jose Hernandez continued his hot start by smacking a monster shot in the 4th inning with two men aboard to give Hampton the 3-0 lead against starter Pete Harnisch. For Hernando, it was his 3rd home and 12th RBI in a platoon role as the Hampton super utility guy (albeit with a glove made out of dog excrement).

Doug Strange ground into a run scoring double play in the 6th to extend the margin to 4-0, but then in the top of the 8th pinch hitter Tony Long(ball)mire lined Jones’s offering over the left field wall to make it 4-2.

Hampton got back the 2-run margin in the bottom of the inning when Strange tripled and drove home Mike Stanley and then scored when Jim Corsi issued a bases loaded walk to Dave Hollins. Corsi was spectacular (bad) walking all three hitters he faced before getting the hook … and for you folks keeping track at home the Sluggers gave up a ludicrous 11 walks in the game and set a trend for these teams in this series.

As it turned out, they basically gave it to Assenmacher from behind. Ass-man faced six hitters in all, giving up three hits including a two-run single to pinch hitter Chris Jones and an RBI single to Tom Goodwin and plonked the traitorous Mickey Morandini right in the gulliver. The virtuoso performance was Assenmacher’s first blown save of the year and gave him a nice neat ERA just under 10.00.

Tim Raines (2) homered for Steel City and catcher Tony Eusebio added a pair of doubles. Mickey Tettleton (3) homered with Jim Eisenreich aboard in the 4th off starter Steve Ontiveros for his only hit on the day.

Jeff Juden started out fast for Hampton striking out three batters in the first two innings. This would have been great normally but the strikeouts came with a high price tag — SEVEN WALKS including walking in two runners with the bases loaded. If juden had his “stuff” today I’d have to say the “stuff” is something like cholera.

Anyway, if his walkfest was not enough some shoddy defense by usually solid Joe Girardi and all-hit no-glove Jose Hernandez resulted in three unearned runs being scored in the early going as the Huskies squandered a 3-1 lead and turned it into an 8-3 loss.

Shawn Dunston and Tom Goodwin each had two hits with Dunston driving one in swinging the bat and another by dodging the ball for Steel City.

Hampton’s ray of sunshine, Mickey Tettleton, continued to pound the ball hammering deep into the right field stands off Tom Urbani in the 3rd inning. Urbani would later get tossed when in the 7th inning he came up to the plate and argued a called strike that sailed wide of the plate, but the lingering effects of home plate umpire John (Knuckles) Tucci getting hit square in the temple by Juden in the 2nd inning made it appear that it was belt high and right over the plate.