Dans split twinbill

BY CHAD DARE

DANVILLE July 02, 2009 02:06 am

— A three-game winning streak would have been a perfect way for the Danville Dans to enter their longest road trip of the season.
Unfortunately for the Dans, they will get on a bus this morning for Pennsylvania coming off a tough 5-4 defeat at the hands of the Dubois Bombers in the second game of the Prospect League doubleheader.
Danville (12-13) won the opener 5-1 behind the pitching of Aaron Lambrix.
“Our guys the last three games have been battling and playing hard,’’ Danville manager Pete Paciorek said. “Today, they just beat us. They came through in the clutch and we didn’t.’’
But, what really frustrated the Dans was the fact that they held a 4-3 lead after Ryan Van Amburg’s two-run, inside-the-park home run in the fourth inning.
“It felt like we had them all the way until the end,’’ Van Amburg said. “But, our team didn’t give up like we have done, at times, in the past.
“We are all bummed out because this was a close loss. Those are hard to take.’’
The Dans will have eight hours to think about it as they travel to Slippery Rock, Pa., today for a 7:05 p.m. (EDT) contest against the Sliders. Danville also have games against the Butler BlueSox on Friday and the North Coast Knights on Saturday during this road trip.
“The next three games will be the toughest part of the season for us,’’ Paciorek said. “We have a long bus ride, and that is some adversity right there. And then, we lose a tough game tonight. The good thing is that the guys are playing well right now.’’
The third-year Danville manager also knows that this stretch of games will be the final ones that the Dans play short-handed.
Outfielder Mikie Mahtook and shortstop Austin Nola, both from the National Champion LSU Tigers, will be joining the Dans next week.
“We still have some guys banged up, we still have some guys sick and we still don’t have our two LSU guys,’’ said Paciorek, who was without Cody Yount (illness) and Byron Williams (hip injury) on Wednesday night. “We are still a little thin, as far as depth. Once we get past these three games, we will have our entire team ready. We should be good to go.’’
The Dans currently find themselves six games behind West Division leader Quincy as the team near the halfway point of the season.
“It’s been an up-and-down season for us, but we can’t let ourselves get caught up in these close losses,’’ Van Amburg said. “We still have a lot of games left in the year, but we want to build some momentum on this road trip for the second-half of the year.’’
The Bombers scored the game-tying and game-winning runs with two-out hits.
Brennan Malham figured into both as his double in the fifth tied the game at 4-4 and he scored the game-winning run on John Hotta’s triple in the seventh off Danville reliever Mark Lamm.
The run in the seventh was unearned as Malham reached first on a throwing error by Danville second baseman Frank Rawdow, who tried a flip the ball out of his glove to Lamm on Malham’s slow chopper.
“There was some confusion between Frank and (first baseman) Richie (Goodenow),’’ Paciorek said. “It was one of those times where I think Frank could have gone underhand flip, but he went with the glove flip and it didn’t work out for us.
“Still, they got a hit when they needed it. Hotta got the barrel out and put the ball in the gap. That is what you are supposed to do with a 3-1 pitch.’’
While the Bombers scored three two-out runs in the contest, the Dans failed to get a run home in the sixth with a runner in scoring position with less than two outs.
“We had two shots to come through and we didn’t get it done,’’ Paciorek said.
Van Amburg’s inside-the-park home run was his second round tripper of the season. He ran through the stop sign of third base coach Nick Gomez on the play.
“I knew I had a triple for sure and when I got close to third, I saw him waving me,’’ Van Amburg said. “But, then I heard him trying to stop me. I was already going full steam and I decided to go for it.’’

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