Whitaker gets reward for his efforts

Sports Reporter

With a string of solid performances but just two wins to show for it, Brian Whitaker has been Mobile's hard-luck pitcher for most of the Southern League season.

But his fortunes changed for the better on Monday night. Whitaker allowed just four hits and one earned run in seven innings, and the Bay Bears scored twice in the bottom of the seventh on bases-loaded walks to beat West Tenn 2-1 at Hank Aaron Stadium.

Whitaker (3-9) has now held opponents to two earned runs or less nine times this season.

"It always feels good to get a win," Whi taker said. "I've been pretty consistent the last three or four games, throwing mainly fastballs and changeups. I tried to keep the ball low and ended up walking four, but we played great defense and we finally pushed across some runs."

The BayBears (3-4 in the Southern League second half) trailed 1-0 heading into the bottom of the seventh, then picked up the two runs off the Diamond Jaxx's bullpen.

Andy Shipman, who came in after West Tenn starter Sean Marshall threw six shutout innings, retired the first two batters but Mobile's Casey Baker singled and Shipman walked Jason Clements and Kennard Jones to load the bases.

The Diamond Jaxx (3-4) went to the pen again for Thomas Atlee but the right-hander couldn't find the plate and walked Brian Burgamy and Ronnie Merrill on eight straight pitches to force in Baker and Clements with the tying and winning runs.

Mobile's bullpen sealed the victory, as Nataneal Mateo pitched the eighth and Dale Thayer threw the ninth to earn his 15th save and give Whitaker the win.

"We'll take a win any way we can get it," Whitaker said. "We've got to come up with some wins in the second half of the season. Once we start working more and more together, we'll get where we need to be."

Marshall kept the BayBears off the board through six innings despite giving up a handful of hits, and Whitaker was almost as effective.

But Whitaker couldn't pitch around a leadoff walk to Dwaine Bacon in the top of the fourth, and West Tenn took a 1-0 lead on a two-out double by Matt Craig.

The BayBears, who didn't produce a run for Whitaker last week, had a great chance to score against Marshall in the sixth when Burgamy singled to lead off the inning and reached third with one out on Merrill's sacrifice.

But Marshall escaped damage by retiring the next two batters and turned the game over to his teammates in the bullpen.

Shipman (1-4) took the loss.

Mobile and West Tenn complete their four-game series tonight at 7:05.