Sunday, July 27, 2003 - LOWELL Right
now, Nomar Garciaparra and Jason Varitek are the best known players from
Georgia Tech in the Red Sox organization.
But Matt Murton hopes to become the next product of the Yellow
Jackets' baseball program to make a name for himself in Boston.
Murton, whom the Red Sox selected as a first round sandwich pick in
this year's June amateur draft, belted his first professional home run
and knocked in another run with a sacrifice fly while leading the Lowell
Spinners past the Vermont Expos, 5-2, at LeLacheur Park yesterday.
Vermont had wiped out a 2-0 deficit with a pair of runs in the top of
the fifth, but the score wasn't deadlocked long as Murton belted a solo
homer to right with one down in the bottom half of the inning.
"I got a good pitch to hit that was up in the zone," said
Murton. "The good thing was I didn't try and do too much with it. I
didn't try and pull off of it and hit a ground ball. I stayed on it and
drove it to right field."
Shortly after arriving in Lowell, Murton began to struggle at the
plate. But he has been on a tear of late. In his last six games, Murton
is hitting .318 (7-for-22) with 6 RBI and 5 runs scored.
"I started off hitting pretty well and then I went into an
0-for-26 slump," said Murton. "From there, it was just a
matter of getting more comfortable in the park and more acclimated with
minor league baseball, along with building confidence in myself. Once I
settled in and started to get a good swing it all started falling
together."
Lowell (20-19) added a pair of insurance runs in the seventh, one of
which came home on Murton's sacrifice fly to right.
The Red Sox drafted Murton, a 6-foot-1, 225-pound outfielder, in the
hopes that he'll develop into a power hitter and run producer. Although
he is only batting .227 in 18 games with Lowell this summer, Murton has
knocked in 11 runs.
Spinner manager Jon Deeble believes the scouts were right on when
evaluating Murton.
"He swings good," said Deeble. "It's compact. He just
got into a little bit of a funk trying to press and do too much (during
his recent slump). But it think he's back on track. That home run today
was big for him.
"He's going to be an RBI guy. When a runner is on third he needs
to get him in and he did that (with the sacrifice fly in the
seventh)."
Jarrett Gardner (3-1) picked up the win on the mound for the
Spinners. Gardner came on in relief of starter Jonathan Papelbon, who
pitched three scoreless innings, and only gave up two runs in four
innings of work.
Jessie Corn pitched the eighth for Lowell, and Brian
Marshall closed it out in the ninth to earn the save.
After Murton's sacrifice fly increased the Spinners' lead to 4-2 in
the seventh, Jeremy West drove in the final Spinner run with a double.
West, the only Spinner to play in all 39 games, is batting .454
(10-for-22) with a homer, six RBI and five runs scored in six games
against Vermont this season.
Lowell jumped out to a 2-0 lead, but Vermont (7-32) evened the score,
2-2, with a pair of runs in the fifth. Lorvin Louisa blasted a long
homer to left for the first Expo run, and Larry Wayne York added an
RBI-single.
The Spinners upped their lead to 2-0 with a run in the second. With
one down, Robert Evans doubled to right and went to third on Vermont
right fielder Kory Casto's error. Evans scored on Kevin Jordan's
fielder's choice.
Lowell manufactured a run in the first as Jordan reached on an
infield single and eventually scored when Brandon Moss drew a
bases-loaded walk.
Former Spinner Dan Generelli is scheduled to be the Expos' staring
pitcher today (5:05 p.m.) Generelli (0-0, 1 save) has pitched in six
games for Vermont and has allowed 12 hits, two walks and two earned runs
in eight innings.
