Portland pounces on Panthers

It had been a long time since the Rockets played at home.
With the biggest crowd of the season on hand, fans were treated to post-Fourth of July fireworks.
Dalton Tinsley and Zach Tanner both hit home runs. The Portland Rockets laced three doubles and totaled 12 hits while pouncing on the Fort Wayne Panthers early in an 8-4 victory Wednesday at Portland Memorial Park’s Runkle-Miller Field.
“I think that we are seeing that if we play on a consistent basis, our offensive timing is coming together,” said Randy Miller, the Portland Rockets manager. “We are going to hit the ball ... We strung some things together. We missed some opportunities as well. We expect to win.”
Coming off a Firecracker Classic tournament championship over the weekend and playing at home for the first time since June 18, Portland (16-5) got started at the dish with a pair of runs in the second inning. Mitch Waters led off the frame with a single up the middle and later scored on an error from Fort Wayne left fielder Jack Harris. Brett Funk, a courtesy runner for catcher TJ Lindstrand, crossed the plate on a double from Tristen Becker, the first of his team-high three hits.
Portland extended the lead to 3-0 in the bottom of the third when Dalton Tinsley deposited Anthony Miller’s 2-0 pitch that he left high in the zone over the fence in right center for his fifth home run of the season.
“Our veteran players are playing against a younger group, but we take pride,” said Miller, whose team hosts the Fort Wayne Jackers at 7 p.m. Friday in its final home game of the regular season. “We have swag and we should have (it).”
After the Panthers — the University of Saint Francis summer-league team — tied the game in the top of the fourth inning. Waters hit a double in the gap to begin the home half of the stanza. He scored on a single from Collin Affolder, who later came around to score on an error for a 5-3 lead the Rockets didn’t give up.
The offense wasn’t done crushing the ball.
In the fifth inning, shortstop Zach Tanner was given a new life after he popped up a 2-0 pitch that the Panther defense had trouble fielding in foul territory behind first base. With that reprieve, Miller hung a 2-1 breaking ball that Tanner smashed to left for a two-run home run, his team-leading eighth of the season and fourth in five days.
Waters and Lindstrand both collected a single and a double, with Borchers also adding a two-bagger. All but one position in the lineup had a hit for Portland, which also got eight strong innings from right-handed pitcher Dan Borchers.
“I?started feeling comfortable,” said Borchers, a Versailles, Ohio, native who plays for Wright State Lake Campus. “Whenever I was warming up tonight everything felt good. My arm was there.”
Portland needed him to pitch late in the game too, as it only had one bench player. Borchers scattered seven hits, allowed four runs — three earned — while striking out five and walking a pair in 110 pitches.
“I?knew that when I?joined this team my defense was going to be there; I didn’t have to worry about getting the strikeouts. I?know we had a couple rough plays (the Rockets had five errors behind him) but we kept going back at it.”
Fort Wayne left runners in scoring position in the first, second, fourth, sixth and eighth innings. Borchers induced 14 ground ball outs, including a double play in the third inning, and Bill Geeslin closed out the ninth inning.