Gold unfairly outmatched
Saturday, June 27, 2009
The Wichita Sox team that showed up to Soden’s Grove on Friday night barely resembled the team that played in last month’s Jock’s Nitch Tourney.
Wichita beat the Emporia Gold 18-1 in six innings on Friday in a game that looked like a mismatch, and for good reason.
The Sox had several players out of town, so they replaced their absentees with Triple-A players against the Single-A Gold.
“From what I saw of them play (at the Jock’s Nitch Tourney), they were around similar level to us,” Emporia coach Alex Reyes said. “And they just came in and looked like a completely different team. Obviously it wasn’t the same team at Jock’s Nitch.”
The Sox played with only three Single-A players and seven Triple-A guys.
The Gold could have used a good bounce-back game after getting blown out in Thursday’s doubleheader against McPherson, but they really never got a chance to show their strength.
Pitcher Chase Speer started and walked only two batters, a big improvement from Thursday night when Emporia’s pitchers gave up too many free passes against McPherson.
Speer at least made Wichita put the ball in play, but his defense struggled, committing four errors.
“Chase didn’t pitch so bad. ... Just the defense didn’t help him out,” Reyes said.
Speer went 5 2/3 innings and Lane Shirley came in to get the last out.
The Gold struggled offensively, tallying only two hits and scoring their only run in the third inning.
“You could tell it was a little bit unfair and no one is really happy about it,” Reyes said.
The Sox nearly canceled the game earlier this week, because their coach didn’t think they would have enough players. Once he thought he had enough, he asked to play one nine-inning game instead of a doubleheader because of a shortage of pitchers.
The Gold did not know the Sox would show up with a roster full of Triple-A players. Unfortunately, Reyes said the game should count against the Gold’s record, dropping them to 5-9.
Emporia is back in action on Sunday at Junction City in a doubleheader that starts at 11 a.m.