Portland stumbles in 11th

Left fielder Chris Tillery made a leap at the fence, but had no chance of catching the 11th-inning bomb.

The Portland Rockets put a man on second in the bottom half of that inning but couldn't convert a run as the Decatur Dirty Birds took a 4-3 victory at Runkle-Miller Field Wednesday.

In the 11th, Portland reliever Derek Mounsey served up a pitch that Decatur pinch hitter Austin Grate slammed over the left-center field fence that turned out to be the game winner.

"He's been struggling a little bit at the plate, but he put it together at the right time," said Decatur manager Victor Canales of the home run.

"Mounsey got one pitch over the plate and the guy drilled it," said Rockets manager Randy Miller. "He probably hit the ball of his life tonight."

The Rockets, trailing 3-2 since the fourth, put together a rally in the bottom of the ninth. Pinch hitter Brandon Van Matre smashed a double to the fence in left center with one out. Pinch runner Corey Scott advanced on a Tillery single and was driven in on a sacrifice fly by Jay County High School graduate Heath Williams to tie it up.

The Rockets had an opportunity in the tenth after Mark Isenberg led off with a single down the third-base line and advanced to second on an overthrow to first after Riley Muhlenkamp lined out to shortstop.

Decatur brought JCHS graduate Josh Shatto, who played for the Rockets last year, to the mound, and after intentionally walking Justin Morero, Shatto struck out the next two batters to get out of the jam.

Shatto iced the first two batters of the 11th, then gave up two walks, but got Mark Isenberg to line out to right field to end it.

"With runners on first and second, they brought in their closer, Shatto, and he did a good job. He got 3-2 on two different guys and we took called third (strikes) with men in scoring position," Miller said. "He has grown up maybe a little bit (since last year) and to his credit he got the big strikeouts."

The Rockets were plagued early by mistakes, including fielding errors, bad throws and a base-running goof that cost Portland a man at third base with one out in the third inning.

"When it's a one-run game you can look back at a lot of things," Miller said. "Our guys stayed right in there down 3-0 and came back, came back, came back and were just knocking on the door but couldn't cave it in."

Miller was disappointed that in two-strike counts late in the game his batters went down on called third strikes instead of taking cuts and trying to put the ball in play.

"Everybody was ready to go home," he said. "We could have got this thing done earlier, just put pressure on the defense - a ground ball or a bloop hit, whatever it took. We had the table set but unfortunately they're feasting on our errors and we're looking back and saying 'coulda, woulda, shoulda.'"

The Rockets' pitching was more stable than Tuesday, when six hurlers combined for 13 walks. Starter Ethan Tribolet went 4 2/3 innings, giving up three runs on five hits while collecting six strikeouts. Will Walters threw 3 2/3 innings in relief, giving up only one hit, and Mounsey was effective with the exception of the extra-inning blast that was the decider.

Portland had some offensive issues throughout the night, putting together seven sporadic hits and stranding 11 base runners. Tillery had two hits, and Williams reached base three times, stole three bases and contributed two sacrifices, including the ninth inning RBI to tie the game.

The victory was the 100th for Canales, who has coached Decatur and its predecessor, the Geneva Cardinals, for several years and has helped Miller organize and promote the World Baseball Congress tournament.

"No. 1, it's always exciting to beat those guys, but No. 2 that was a great game to be involved in," Canales said. "You always have to watch your back when you're playing them you never know when someone's going to pull out some Rocket power. Thankfully we got the better of them tonight and we've got to play them two more times so it's not going to be easy."[[In-content Ad]]