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Junior college Lancers defeat Pirates 6-4
By Tom Balog
Published: Thursday, April 2, 2009 at 12:31 p.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, April 2, 2009 at 5:44 p.m.
Manatee Community College freshman Nick Graham's dramatic running, diving catch in the left field corner finished the Lancers' thrilling 6-4 upset victory over a team of Pittsburgh Pirates minor leaguers in their annual charity exhibition game before 1,763 fans at McKechnie Field.
Graham tracked down the fly hit by Henry Henry, who played for the Pirates' Venezuela Summer League team last year, off freshman right-hander T.J. Harbuck with two outs in the ninth inning.
"I had to lay out for it," Graham said. "The guy from first (base) probably would have scored if I would have missed it. It's so exciting. It's awesome."
"It'll be cool to watch those guys on TV and be like, 'Hey, we played against them, we beat them' " Harbuck said. "That's what I'll think about when I see them on TV," he said. "Hopefully one day I'll be there."
Harbuck had walked two batters after retiring the first two hitters.
"My emotions ran too high," said Harbuck, who earned the save as the ninth of MCC's nine pitchers to take the mound. "I was thinking way too much (about getting) the last out.
Sophomore Derek Luciano, a Manatee High graduate, tripled and scored on a single by Nate Davis in the eighth to give the Lancers an insurance run.
The Pirates lineup for the final five innings consisted of minor leaguers at the Double-A level and below.
But nonetheless, the Pirates were held scoreless over the final six innings by six MCC pitchers _ Josh Renfro, Bobby Dixon, Michael Mullen, Spencer Clifft, John Lingo and Harbuck.
The Pirates started Virgil Vasquez, a 26-year-old right-hander, who had been in contention for the fifth starter spot, had been demoted to Triple-A Indianapolis on Wednesday.
The lineup also included five other Triple-A players _ Andrew McCutchen, Steve Pearce, Brian Bixler, Neil Walker and Robinzon Diaz, along with Jose Tabata, a Double-A standout. But they were gone after the fourth inning.
"We're a junior college team," said MCC coach Tim Hill. "The first (four) innings we played the Triple A club and four guys (Vasquez, Pearce, Diaz and Bixler) that have been in the bigs.
"So I think it's a very big accomplishment for these guys."
Luciano was 3-for-4 with a double, triple and four RBI, hitting eighth.
"It's nice to see a hometown guy go ahead and have a day like that," Hill said.
Tony Mitchell, hitting seventh, was 2-for-3 with a double and three runs scored.
Logan Moro, the Lancers' sophomore catcher and No.9 hitter, drove a fly ball over McCutchen's head for a double to center field, for MCC's second hit off Vasquez.
"He left it up a little bit and I was ablew to get my hands on top of it and shoot it over the center fielder's head," Moro said.
The bottom of the order did the most damage for the Lancers.
"One through nine, our hitters can hit," Moro said. "That's just the way we've been all year."
Vasquez, who was 0-1 with the Detroit Tigers in 2007 and 12-12 last year with Triple-A Toledo, struck out five of the first six Lancers he faced, with Gus Schlosser' groundout, the lone batted ball.
But MCC soon shook off the butterflies and Vasquez finished with nine strikeouts. He pitched 4 2/3 innings, giving up five hits, three runs, three earned with no walks.
Vasquez was replaced by right-hander Alan Knotts, who was 3-2 with a 4.09 ERA last season for State College of the Single-A New York-Penn League.
Left-hander Dave Davidson came on in the sixth.
He gave up a two-run double to Luciano that gave MCC a 5-4 lead.
Luciano was thrown out at the plate on a single by Logan Moro to right field.
But Luciano would connect for his third hit, a triple to right center and score the sixth run for MCC on a single by Nate Davis in the top of the ninth.
Mitchell broke the ice off Vasquez, lining a single to left field to lead off the Lancers' third inning. Mitchell later doubled off the left center field wall in the fifth.
Jonathan Rodriguez reached base on a wild pitch strikeout and scored the Lancers' second run on a single to right field by Luciano.
A couple pitches earlier, the bat flew out of Luciano's hands and over the first base dugout.
It knocked a plate of nachos out of a lady's hands, but she was unhurt.
Kelvin Clark's RBI single to right field scored Mitchell with the third Lancers' run.
With runners on second and third and one out in the third, Kelvin Clark grounded out to shortstop, scoring Mitchell with the Lancers' first run, making it 3-1 Pirates.
The Pirates had taken a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the second against Lancers LH Alex Burgos.
An RBI double by Ryan Mulhern scored Diaz.
McCutchen's double play ball scored the Pirates' second run. Then Mulhern scored on a wild pitch..
Schlosser started for MCC, and was followed by Burgos in the second.
RH Ray Morris took the mound in the third, as Hill kept with his practice of letting every pitcher throw one inning against the Pirates.
Morris, a Manatee High graduate, gave up game's only home run, a solo blast by Pearce over the 400-foot sign in straightaway center field, with two outs in the third.
It would be the last run scored by the Pirates.
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