Rockets recharged

The offense is back.
After stumbling in two losses Saturday, the Portland Rockets put down the visiting Van Wert Twisters 11-1 in seven innings Tuesday at Portland Memorial Park’s Runkle-Miller Field.
The Rockets (12-6) took a special interest in defeating Van Wert after falling 8-0 and 4-2 Saturday to the Michigan City Lakers, a team the Twisters split with a day later.
Portland started early, piling on 10 runs in the first three innings.
Dalton Tinsely led off the game with a triple and scored on a wild pitch to get the first run on the board. The next two men up drew walks and Jay County High School graduate Mitch Waters brought them around with a two-run double. He scored two batters later on an RBI single from Thomas McCowan (JCHS).
After a scoreless second inning, in which the momentum was thrown off after an interference call when Tinsely slammed into Van Wert’s shortstop on a ground ball to the left side, Portland surrendered its only run in the top of the third on a sacrifice fly.
But the Rockets added six more after sending nine batters to the plate in the third.
Newcomer Kirby Campbell of Ball State University hit an RBI double, Tinsely brought in two more runs with a single and Brice Davis crushed a ball into left field for a three run homer.
“I got two strikes and didn’t want to get cheated out of anything,” said Davis, noting that he felt the home-plate umpire made a bad call for a third strike in his previous at bat. “You get one to go every once and a while.”
The Rockets added their final run in the fourth inning to give them the 10-run lead that ended the game after seven.
The game was a tryout in different senses for two Rockets, and both rose to the occasion.
Campbell was dressed for his first game in Portland and lived up to the expectations coming from a Division I school. After drawing a walk in his first at bat, he went on to hit an RBI double, a sacrifice fly and capped off the night with a triple in his Rockets debut.
“I hadn’t played in a while so I went up there and was ready to hack and got my pitch and hit it,” Campbell said of his outing. “It’s nice to be able to come back and have that laid back atmosphere but still be able to work on your skills and get better at the same time.”
“He’s played wood bat the last couple years in the Great Lakes Conference for Celina. We knew he was a good player. His brother Cody played with us last year,” added Rockets’ manager Randy Miller of Campbell. “I told him if you show up you’ve got to be game ready and he is. He’s a solid athlete, good arm, good kid, good player. Those are the kinds of guys we can build around.”
Tinsely was also under scrutiny Tuesday as coach Matt Kennedy from Parkland College in Champaign, Ill., was on hand to watch him. He didn’t disappoint, going 3-for-3 with a triple, two RBIs and a stolen base.
One other Rocket may be leaving the squad because of a tryout. Shortstop Zach Tanner, who joined the Rockets last week, had a two-day tryout Saturday and Sunday with the Gary SouthShore Railcats of the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball.
Although Tanner hadn’t heard back from the team as of Tuesday, Miller expected the Wright State University player to be picked up.
“I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if we lose him, and we wish him the best,” he said.
On the mound, the Rockets got five solid innings out of Michael Caley, who struck out six while giving up two hits and two walks. Billy Geeslin and Travis Gray each threw scoreless innings in relief.

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