Thursday, July 17, 2008
Pitcher Kevin Belk shined Wednesday evening at Riverside Park in his first career KIT League start to lead the Tradewater Pirates to an 8-4 win over the Farmington Firebirds in the first game of a day-night doubleheader.
Belk tossed a seven-inning complete game and allowed just five hits while striking out seven.
“He’s been out of the bullpen the whole year, and he threw two nights ago,” Tradewater coach Kurt Elbin said. “I didn’t really know what he was going to give me. We put him in a tough spot, but he performed very well.”
Down 2-1, Tradewater appeared to be mired in a pitcher’s duel until the sixth inning when the Pirates erupted for seven runs and sent 12 batters to the plate in the rally.
Elbin credited Farmington starting pitcher Wes Dagestad with a well-pitched game that confused Tradewater batters until the sixth.
“He threw a hell of a game,” Elbin said. “He kept us off-balance, and he was throwing a bit. We haven’t seen a lefty throw with the velocity he had tonight in a long time. I think it took our kids a little while to get used to.”
After struggling to put runs together in the first six frames, the Pirates employed a bit of small ball in the seven-run rally. Tradewater’s number three hitter, Nathan Wright, started the inning with a single to left field.
Clean-up hitter Richard Atwood laid down a perfect bunt resulting in a single. Catcher Matt Kulbacki followed with another bunt, a fielder’s choice, to load the bases with no outs.
“When Nate led off that inning with a single, I knew we had to bunt even though it was our four, five (batters) coming up,” Elbin said.
Payne Spence drove in the inning’s first runs when he tied the game at 2-2 on an RBI single to left. Tanner Hall stepped up next and gave the Pirates a 3-2 advantage on a sacrifice fly to deep center.
Later in the same inning, Atwood came back around to bat and capped the scoring with a two-run single to center for an 8-2 lead.
While his teammates wracked up the runs, a relieved Belk watched from the bench.
“It felt great because I knew eventually they were going to put some hits together, they always do,” Belk said. “I knew even though we only had one run going into that inning we were going to get some so I wasn’t worried.”
Belk surrendered two more runs in the top of the seventh, but eventually settled down to earn the win.
After the game Elbin said it was his team’s ability to play successful small ball that allowed the Pirates to eventually come out on top.
“I thought it was just one of those games that come down to who did the small things right and we ended up capitalizing there in the sixth, and that proved to be the difference,” he said.
Until the seventh, Belk had allowed just two other runs, both in the fourth inning.
“I think most of the game I was keeping the ball down and a few pitches, off-speed pitches mostly, I left up and got hurt,” Belk admitted afterward.
Belk’s coach was pleased with the results, however, as Tradewater avoided digging into its bullpen.
“He threw strikes and did a great job,” Elbin said. “I couldn’t be more happy with his performance.”
With the win, Tradewater extends its winning streak to four games and moves to 28-13 overall.
Pirate pitcher Sean Mahley started the second game of the double-dip, and Tradewater led 2-1 after two innings at the time of print.
Tradewater will play host to the Owensboro Oilers in the first of a three-game series at 7p.m. today.
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