Pitching woes doom Rockets in 9-3 loss

The Rockets finally welcomed a bright and shiny new scoreboard.

Pitching wasn’t nearly as pristine.

The Portland Rockets gave up a 2-1 lead in the fifth inning and allowed too many free passes in a 9-3 loss to the Fort Wayne Jackers on Friday in a seven-inning contest at Portland Memorial Park’s Runkle-Miller Field.

“Our guys compete,” said Portland manager Randy Miller. “Certainly not out of our element. I knew we were short (handed) coming in and it went against us that way.”

Native son Mitch Waters got the nod on the hill for the Rockets (9-8), and despite giving up an RBI single in the first inning threw well over the next three frames.

Fort Wayne threatened in the fourth with two on and one out, but Waters induced a fielder’s choice and struck out his counterpart Matt Eastman to end the chance.

Laboring to 58 pitches through four innings, the fifth frame doomed the Rocket captain as he started to lose command of his pitches. He plunked TYler Harman to start the frame, and after a strikeout he hit Tristan Sprunger too. Mickeil McCowan walked to load the bases ahead of a Bill Geeslin — a former Rocket — who popped up a 3-0 pitch to Waters for the second out.

Trey Haberkorn, the Jackers’ No. 3 hitter, drilled the 76th and final pitch of the night from Waters to deep left field to clear the bases and put Fort Wayne on top 4-2.

“You could tell with body language he needed to come out,” Miller said. “He got the big second out. Two outs is fool’s gold sometimes and he couldn’t get the third one.

“We trust him in that situation. He’s not going to be happy if you take him out or leave him in because he’s a competitor. I wanted him to compete for that one more guy and the guy hit a double.”

One inning later, reliever Chase Ruiz had difficulty locating the strike zone too. After Tyler Prince hit a leadoff single, Ruiz walked three straight batters before Miller pulled him.

“Didn’t give him a chance to adequately warm up,” Miller said.

Ruiz, normally just a pitcher, had to play left field and didn’t get to toss any in the bullpen before entering.

“It’s tough to step in like that, but with the numbers we had today we had to play it that way,” Miller said.

Prince had two of Fort Wayne’s seven hits.

Sprunger hit a single off Zach Tanner to make it 7-2, and McCowan singled in a pair to push the score to 9-2.

Portland, which hosts the Hammond Lakers for a doubleheader at 1 p.m. today, got a run back in the home half of the sixth inning. Tanner hit a double to center field to score younger brother Zeth, who had singled down the left field line.

The Rockets jumped out front in the first inning as Chris Gaines hit a grounder to second and legged out a single ahead of a Zeth Tanner walk. Zach Tanner knocked in the first of his team-high two RBIs on a groundout, and Ruiz doubled to left to make it 2-1.

Waters also had a hit for the Rockets.

Portland appeared to be well on its way to a quick victory before the Jackers got to Waters and the Rocket bullpen.

Waters allowed three hits, walked a pair and hit three batters in 4 2/3 innings. He allowed four earned runs to shoulder the loss. Ruiz was also charged four earned runs in just a third of an inning.

Miller wasn’t overly disappointed knowing the state of his roster Friday night.

“I know when we put our tournament team together we’ll be fine,” Miller said. “We played two high school kids.”