Rockets stumble

Pitching struggled mightily for the Rockets in the early going.

And by the time the Portland offense really started to come around the deficit was just too large.

Eight walks and three hit batsmen helped dig the Portland Rockets into a 10-run hole after just three innings in a 17-9 loss to the Summit City Sluggers on Wednesday at Portland Memorial Park’s Runkle-Miller Field.

“It went south in a hurry but after the third inning we started playing some real baseball,” said Portland manager Randy Miller, whose team has now lost two of its last three games and sits at 8-4 on the season. “Credit to the boys of summer, they gutted it out (and) competed. I thought we were in for a run-shortened game … but we played nine (innings).”

Summit City manager Todd Farr, a Jay County High School assistant baseball coach, commended his Slugger team for being patient at the plate.

“That was the big thing,” he said. “We’ve been talking about that. In the last couple games we’ve had a lot of strikeouts and in the last couple games we’ve talked about being patient out there.

“We knew (the pitcher) was struggling a bit, the guys saw that. Being patient showed for some runs on the board there.”

Things unraveled for Portland almost immediately. Nick Bailey walked the first batter he faced before getting a strikeout. Consecutive free passes loaded the bases, then a hit batsman brought in the first run. Another walk with the bases juiced made it 2-0 Summit City (7-6-1), before an RBI single and a sacrifice fly doubled the advantage.

The Sluggers put bat to the ball in the second, racking up four hits while scoring four more runs, highlighted by a two-run Tyler Jacob single with two outs.

Adam Ott took over for Bailey — he allowed eight runs on five hits — in the third inning, and wasn’t able to stop the bleeding.

He plunked Zach White to begin the inning, and surrendered a single. Then four consecutive walks — a total of 17 straight pitches missed the strike zone — along with another hit batsmen and fielder’s choice RBI spotted the Sluggers five more runs.

“Dug a big hole. We probably turned it completely backwards from what we should have,” said Miller, noting he let Kasey Henderson throw the final two innings instead of giving him the start. “Our other guys, we thought we’d give them a chance to have a full bullpen, have nobody on base … you’ve got a full opportunity to warm up and it still didn’t work.”

Summit City had another four-run inning in the fifth, highlighted by a Dominic Deisler RBI triple. Eli McDonald and Jeff Pawlik also drove in runs.

Portland’s only shining light Wednesday evening came from the player who’s been doing it all season long.

Patrick Mills, a 20-year-old Kokomo resident, went 4-for-4 with two home runs, two doubles, four RBIs and four runs.

His first two-run shot came in the first inning, a rocket that cleared the short trees beyond the right field fence and brought home Henderson. He hit an opposite-field double to left in the third, and Farr intentionally walked him one inning later.

In the sixth, Mills sent an oppo-taco to left with Henderson on yet again for his fifth round-tripper of the season and first multi-homer game as a Rocket.

“It was pretty good,” Mills said of his night, during which he also doubled in the ninth inning and later scored the game’s final run. “I was seeing the ball pretty well today. I was just trying to have some fun. Made some good barrels.”

Corbin Maddox, a Daleville product, had two of Portland’s other seven hits and also knocked in two runs.

Jacob finished 3-for-4 with four RBIs for the Sluggers.