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By PHIL GRAY
Gazette Sports Writer
Call it seven good innings and two bad ones.
But the bad ones - yeah, those were frustrating.
"Frustrating ain't the word for it," Paints manager Mark Mason said. "I mean, it's game No. 5, and you're going to lose games like this during the season. But it's just that I expect a little more than this out of the guys.
"That's the bottom line."
A three-run Slippery Rock eighth spoiled Eric Teall's strong debut as a professional starter, and the Paints' offense couldn't put together enough of a late rally as the Sliders came away with a 5-4 victory.
Back-to-back-to-back bases loaded walks in the eighth inning of a tie game was bad enough, but the inability to get down a sacrifice in an obvious bunting situation is what really got under Mason's skin.
"You know why we lost this game?" Mason said. "Because we didn't play fundamental baseball. One thing my team will learn about me is that you will get the bunt down with two strikes, and you are going to bunt. That situation is going to be there a million times during the season."
The situation was this - Bryan Marshall and Eli Diaz combined to walk five and hit a batter, with a throwing error by catcher Jeff Parrish mixed in. All that combined to hand Slippery Rock three runs on zero hits in the top of the eighth, breaking open a 2-2 game. But the Paints got two of the runs back on Travis Storrer's first professional home run in the bottom of the inning, then had a chance again in the ninth.
Pinch hitter Jaziel Mendoza legged out a close play on an error by shortstop Kory Lonergan to lead off the inning, setting up the sacrifice situation for leadoff hitter Gavin Ng.
"I didn't even give him a bunt sign. I just showed him 'bunt'," Mason said, miming the action of putting bat to ball - and of giving yourself up to move over a runner. "Everybody in the park knows you're bunting right there, and we're not bunting for a hit in that situation."
Unfortunately, it seemed that Ng was trying to, and in the process he struck out by fouling off a pitch with two strikes. After that, Paul Rutgers lined hard to right and, after a walk to Travis Garcia, Jon Poterson fanned to end any hope of a comeback.
"It's upsetting," Mason said, talking of the combination of things that turned a tight game into a headache. "I'm not a big situation guy, but I do expect certain things. Get the bunt down, throw strikes. Brian Marshall is one of my end-of-the-line guys and I told him the same thing I've told all my other pitchers - I'm sure you're throwing strikes in the bullpen, and I expect you to throw strikes when you come into the game."
Marshall retired only one of the six batters he faced in the eighth, and that was on a sacrifice bunt by Lonergan. Marshall walked three in the inning and hit a batter before giving way to Diaz, who walked the first batter he faced to force in the Sliders' fifth run.
"We gave them... one, two, three - six (free runners), counting the hit batter that inning," Mason said. "It's just ridiculous."
And now for the obvious question - can the right lessons be learned from this kind of loss?
"I will tell you this," Mason said. "In the team fundamentals tomorrow, we will take no batting practice. We'll bunt from 3:30 to 4:45 tomorrow. That will be our team fundamentals. I mean, I'm not going to watch that every night."
After an afternoon of small-ball stuff, the Paints will turn back to pitcher Perry Cunningham, who gave up eight runs in 12¼3 innings in the opener, to oppose Slippery Rock starter Caleb McConnell (0-1, 0.00 ERA) for the 7:05 p.m. game.
The Dirt
The sloppy stuff in the eighth and ninth innings hung an unfortunate cloud over a beautiful beginning as a starter by Teall, who was working on a fairly short leash in his debut. "He threw 80 pitches in five innings," Mason said. "That was enough for his first start, but he did a great job." In fact, Teall gave up two runs on just four hits while striking out seven and walking only one. It was far and away the most solid outing for any Paints starter through the first sweep through the pitching rotation. ... And Ryan Flanigan threw just as well, striking out two in two perfect innings of relief of Teall. ... Poterson fanned four times Sunday, bringing his season total to nine strikeouts in 21 at-bats. ... With two more hits Sunday, Adrian Cantu is hitting .550 (11-for-20) on the season. He has a hit in each of the first five games.
(Gray can be reached at 772-9302 or via e-mail at pgray@nncogannett.com)
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