Tinsley, Rockets blast Bankers

The Rockets rebounded from their second loss of the season Friday night with a doubleheader sweep Saturday.
Sunday, the Rocket train kept rolling.
The Portland Rockets scored 20 runs on 20 hits, including seven extra-base hits, in sweeping the Twin City Bankers at Runkle-Miller Field.
The Rockets (6-2), winners of four straight games, took the opener 12-5 behind a stellar afternoon at the plate from Dalton Tinsley. He was 3-for-5 with a home run, two doubles and six RBIs.
He added two more hits in the second game, an 8-3 victory.
“I was just seeing good pitches in good hitter’s counts,” said Tinsley, who was 5-for-7 on the day, was a triple shy of the cycle for the doubleheader and tracked down a handful of fly balls to deep center field. “(I’ve) been hitting slow this year so I just wanted to get it going. Just looking for good pitches to hit and I got them today.”

Portland manager Randy Miller praised his veteran team for putting the ball in play and being able to take an extra base here and there.
“When those guys square up they are accomplished hitters,” said Miller, whose team returns to action at 7 p.m. Wednesday at home against the Fort Wayne Panthers. “Our veteran core is expected to deliver and they do. They have the ability to barrel-up. If the pitcher makes a mistake he might pay for it with extra bases.”
That was most prevalent in game one, during which Tinsley put the Rockets on the board in the top of the second inning with a two-out, two-run home run to right center. Tristen Becker — he was 2-for-2 with five walks on the afternoon — drew a six-pitch walk and reached second on a throwing error from Twin City pitcher Luke Hunter. Tinsley worked a 2-1 count, then deposited the fourth pitch over the fence for a no-doubt goner and his first round-tripper of the season.
After Twin City cut the deficit in half with a run in the top of the third inning, Portland answered with two more runs on a sacrifice fly from Geoff Bowers and an RBI single by Becker.
Tinsley hit his first double of the afternoon in the fifth inning, a bases-clearing shot to the gap in right-center field to score T.J. Lindstrand, Geoff Bowers and Becker for a 7-1 advantage. But in the top of the sixth inning, the Bankers made it a game with a four-run frame off Rocket reliever Mitch Waters, highlighted by Reed’s two-run double.
Just as the lead had diminished, the Rockets poured it back on in the sixth. De’Quan Blackmon hit a two-out, pinch-hit double to score two runs, and Tinsley later had another RBI double for the eventual 12-5 final.
Garrett Scott earned the win in the first game, tossing four innings, giving up one earned run on four hits with two walks and a strikeout.
“Those guys tend to get better with age,” Miller said. “It’s not all talent. It has to do with experience, getting ahead in the count, working the pitcher.
“We’ve seen some quality arms. We are gaining our stride.”
That stride continued during the second game as Portland scored four times in the first inning. Zach Tanner and Lindstrand both had RBI singles, Waters had a sacrifice fly and 2014 South Adams High School graduate Collin Affolder blasted an RBI triple to the right-center gap.
Tanner added a solo home run in the second inning, and later hit a two-run single to finish game two 3-for-4 with five RBIs.
Blackmon got the victory in game two. He had gotten out of a bases-loaded jam in the first inning, struck out the side in the third and pitched his way out of trouble during the fourth when the Bankers got runners on second and third with no outs. He surrendered two earned runs on five hits, struck out five and walked four in five innings.
“We knew getting into the fourth and fifth game of the weekend pitching was going to be testy and they answered the call pretty good,” Miller said. “Garrett did a good job. Mitch got his work in. Totally in control.
“Blackmon, not totally in control but effectively around the plate.”
The southpaw from Muncie gave up a triple and a two-run double in the second inning for the only blemish on his outing.
“He started gaining his stride too,” Miller said. “He showed he has an upside and is to be considered. We are developing a staff.”