Lansing Lugnuts at Michigan Battle Cats
April 24th, 2002
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| Michigan |
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E-Cedeno, LOB LAN-4, MIC-7, 2B-Arteaga, Lydic, 3B-Cedeno, HR-Mallory (Rohlicek), HBP-Coats, Stegall, SACF-Johnson, Checksfield
HB-Benik, Rohlicek, WP-Sanchez, SO-Coats, Johnson, Bouras, Mallory, Miliano 3, Slavik, Marmol, Conrad, Lydic, Lucas, BB-Slavik, Rodriguez 2, Lentini, IBB-Shelf
T-2:02, A-551
Lansing State Journal
The Michigan Battle Cats scored twice in the eighth inning Wednesday night to beat the Lansing Lugnuts at C.O. Brown Stadium 4-2.
Lansing took a 1-0 lead in the third inning when Ronny Cedeno scored on a sacrifice fly by J.J. Johnson.
Michigan tied the game in the bottom of the third and took the lead in the fourth on Joe Lydic's RBI double.
Lansing was able to tie the game at the top of the sixth with a home run by Mike Mallory, his secon of the year.
Steve Checksfield hit a sacrifice fly to drice in Mike Rodriguez in the eighth inning with the go ahead run for Michigan. Trevor Mote drove in the final run with a single.
D.J. Houlton (1-0) got the win in relief, retiring all nine batters he faced.
Battle Creek Enquirer
by Howie Magner
Safe to say Russ Rohlicek's standards are a bit on the high side.
The Michigan left hander was about an hour removed from pitching six quality innings in Michigan's 4-2 win over Lansing Wednesday at C.O. Brown Stadium. But when you've given up four earned runs all season, giving up two in one game doesn't sit too well.
"Tonight I didn't have anything." said Rohlicek. "I was leaving the ball up. They took advantage of a few and some i got away with.",br>
The numbers say he got away with plenty.
Rohlicek gave up just five hits while striking out five more batters and walking one. And without a two out mistake in the sixth inning, a grooved pitch to Lansing's Mike Mallory that became a solo home run and tied the game a 2 all, Rohlicek would have his fourth win of the season.
It's a good sign, but I didn't do nearly as well as I wanted to." Rohlicek said, "But it was good enough to win and that's the important part. As long as we end the day with a W, that's fine."
It was Michigan's second W in as many days against the Lugnuts, pushing the Battle Cats to 14-6 and dropping Lansing to 9-10.
D.J. Houlton wrapped up the win for Michigan, pitching the final three innings without allowing a hit and striking out four. He improved to 4-0 courtesy of Michigan's two run eighth inning.
Mike Rodriguez started the rally with a leadoff walk, then won a race to second on Fehlandt Lentini's ground ball to short. Rodriguez and Lentini moved up a base on Brook's Conrad's groundout to first, opening up a base for Lugnuts reliever B.J. Benik (0-1) to intentionally walk Todd Shelf.
That put the game on the shoulders of Steve Checksfield, who entered the game batting just .186. But Checksfield came through with a sacrifice fly to center field for his 13th RBI of the year.
"He's clutch, isn't he," Michigan manager John Massarelli said. "How many runs you drive in and how many runs you score are the two most important stats you can have and he's right up there."
Trevor Mote followed with an RBI single to right to put the Cats up 4-2.
The hit capped a 3 for 4 night for Mote, and outing that snapped the third baseman out of a 2 for 26 slump.
Earlier in the game, Mote was involved in the play that gave the Cats their first lead of the game. After Mote singled and reached third base on a wild pitch and Ryan Stegall's infield hit. Joe Lydic ripped a double down the left field line to put the Cats ahead 2-1.
Stegall also tried to score on the play, bu Lansing's relay throw from the outfield reached catcher Carlos Marmol well ahead of Stegall. The Michigan shortstop tried to knock the ball from Marmol's grip, only to get knocked to the ground by Marmol's stiff arm.
"He got up under me and got me pretty good." said Stegall, who was unhurt on the play and got the expected warm welcome back in the Michigan dugout. "Everybody thought it was pretty funny except me. So it was all right and at least they got a pretty good laugh out of it."