Big inning dooms Tide

For almost five innings Friday afternoon at Glatfelter Field, Crimson Tide sophomore Jimmy Lee was doing his best Jamie Moyer imitation. He was dazzling Elco batters with an assortment of pitches.


In the fifth, Lee struck out the first batter he faced, then gave up a bunt base hit and got the next batter to fly deep to right to Johnny Vazquez.

He had two easy outs and the Tide was leading 2-1. After the fly ball to right, another Elco batter doubled to right. And it looked like Lee was going to get out of the inning when a ground ball was hit to Tide third sacker Brandon Aukamp.

What should have been the third out turned into an eight run inning and a 9-2 Elco lead. The visiting Raiders turned the big inning into an 11-2 win.

After the error on Aukamp, the Raiders saw the next six hitters reach base, four with hits, one of which was a bases clearing double.

While that inning may have turned the game around, the Tide left this one get away in their half of the third and fourth innings.

In the third, Josh Elliot and Brandon Arnold led off the inning with singles. After Seth Lefever struck out, Michael Burke blooped a hit to center to score one run. Aukamp then reached on an error to load the bases with one out. But, Lee struck out and Johnny Vasquez flied to right to end the threat.

In the fourth, Jake Sentz ripped a double down the left field line and Cain Warfel followed with a single. The Tide had runners on the corners with no outs. But things went bad for the Tide. Chris Aruda, the courtesy runner for catcher Warfel was picked off, Elliot struck out and Arnold flied out to center to end the second threat.

And when you are going bad, bad things happen and they did to the Tide in the fifth.

Things started good for the Tide in this one.

The Tide scored an unearned run in the first, when Elco had trouble fielding the ball and led 1-0.

Elco tied the game in the third with some sall ball, using three walks and a sacrifice fly.

But the Tide’s inability to come up with the big hit in the third and fourth innings hurt.

Elco scored one more in the sixth on an infield bunt, walk two balks called on Aruda, who became the pitcher in relief of Lee.

In the seventh, Aruda was called for three more balks, which allowed Elco to score another run. A nice diving catch by Arnold in center kept Elco from scoring a few more runs in the final frame.