TORRINGTON - The
Torrington Twisters have made a habit of making the best of bad
breaks all season and it was no different Thursday night in
their opening quarterfinal game against the Manchester
Silkworms.
After losing their original starting pitcher, Joe Serafin to a
freak injury in pre-game warmups, Torrington rode six innings of
middle-relief by Keith Cantwell and a six-run second inning on
its way to a 6-5 win over Manchester.
The win puts the Twisters up 1-0 in the best-of-three opening
round as they head to Manchester today for a 7 p.m. start.
Serafin was walking in from the bullpen 45 minutes before game
time when he was hit in the back of the head by an errant throw.
The injury was not serious, and Serafin should be available for
an inning or two tonight, but it caused manager Gregg Hunt to
move up game-two starter Kurt Houck.
Trouble was, Houck had thrown close to 50 pitches in four
innings of work in Torrington's 4-3 win over the Newport Gulls
Monday night and would be working on short rest.
To his credit, according to his coach, Houck did not hesitate.
"Kurt did what a good teammate does." Hunt said. "He was up
stretching right after Joe got hurt. He was more than willing to
take the ball."
Houck gave up a single run in the first and three in the second
to put the Twisters down 4-0, but his offense helped him out in
the bottom of the second when they batted around.
In one inning, the Twisters beat up on one of their biggest
obstacles all season, getting multiple two-out hits.
Left fielder Gregg Miller led off the inning with a long double
to center, but looked like he would be stranded as Myckie
Lugbauer grounded out and Joe Van Meter took a called third
strike.
What happened next was music to Hunt's ears: Six straight
batters would reach base while six runs scored. Twister first
baseman Lee Bujakowski worked out a walk on a full count to put
runners on the corners and right fielder Will Cherry opened the
floodgates with a lined single to left, scoring Miller.
Eric Deragisch was hit on top of the helmet to load the bases
for Steve Parker. In many of these situations this season, the
third baseman from Brigham Young University has hit many a
bullet that found somebody's glove.
On Thursday though, Parker lined a single into right that scored
Bujakowski and Cherry while cutting the Silkworms lead to 4-3.
Twisters second baseman Garett Green wasted no time in keeping
things going as he drove a single into left to plate Deragisch
and even things up at 4-4.
The party wasn't over, though. Shortstop Chris Klepps launched a
drive to the base of the fence in left center that scored Parker
and Green. Klepps was thrown out trying to stretch the double
into a triple, but the damage was done. Torrington was up 6-4.
Cantwell has been magnificent of late for the Twisters. He threw
seven innings of one-run ball versus Newport last Saturday
before taking over for Houck in the third.
"Coach told me to be ready in case." Cantwell said. "I felt good
when I got out there."
The Silkworms managed a run in the seventh to bring them within
one at 6-5, but faced a motivated and experimental Twister
closer when Steve Strasburg came in to close things out.
"I have been working on my change-up a lot lately." Strasburg
said. "The hitters have been sitting on my fastball, so I needed
to work on that this summer and it's working well."
The fact that a third pitch is working well for the talented
closer from San Diego State should be disheartening for the rest
of the NECBL.
Like his fastball at 96 miles-per-hour and an 84 mph slider were
not enough.
NOTES: Gary Novakowski will be on the mound tonight for the
Twisters after missing his last start with another freak injury.
While at work this past week, Novakowski had a 350-pound barrel
fall on his right wrist. It was an awful color for a while, but
no break was evident. ... The North Adams Steeple Cats stayed
the hottest team the NECBL with an 8-4 win over Newport in the
other Southern Division quarterfinal game Thursday night.
