By Nate Beutel<br><a href="mailto:beuteln@gnnewspaper.com">E-mail Nate</a>
July 01, 2008 11:37 pm
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If there was ever a night that put year two of the Niagara Power franchise into perspective it was Tuesday.
Niagara enjoyed a loud and robust crowd of 242 at Sal Maglie Stadium, unfortunately they were treated to some mind-numbing baseball — something that has occurred all too often this year for Power skipper Sam Kirby’s liking. In fact, after the 15-3 loss to Brockport, Kirby was as visibly distraught as he’s been in his two years at the helm of the team.
“You put 15 guys on with free passes and you can’t even be competitive,” he said sternly. “The worst part about it is that we’re not learning from our mistakes. It’s the same thing over and over. We need about a nine-hour practice.”
The Riverbats certainly didn’t have any sympathy for Niagara as they pounded the Power early and often. Brockport used five singles to scratch across three runs in the second and followed that up with a five-run third frame. Niagara was forced to use three pitchers in the fifth. One of those hurlers, reliever Chris Hackett, didn’t retire a batter as Niagara committed two errors and walked five in the stanza.
The Power attempted to get back into the contest numerous times the rest of the way, but were plagued by the double play. Niagara grounded into four double plays, with two of them coming with the bases loaded.
“We have to take advantage of those opportunities,” Kirby said. “Every team we play is taking advantage of them and we need to start doing it too.”
The closest the Power would get was five in the seventh after Kyle Cabral, who had two hits, had an RBI double to make the score 8-3. Brockport responded, though, as it notched four runs in the eighth and three more in the ninth.
Hard to imagine, but it could have been even worse for Niagara as the visitors left an incredible 17 runners on base.
Niagara, which hosts Webster and Lockport resident Cory Brownsten a 7 p.m. today, drops to 6-13. Even though the season is nearly half over, Kirby said he will refuse to let his team pack it in.
“I’m going to try to stay as positive as I can and continue to help develop these guys,” he said. “I’m not writing this season off at all.”
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