September 10, 2007

White Sox jump on Brewers early; force Game 3
By SCOTT MANSCH
Tribune Asst. Sports Editor

HELENA — The Great Falls White Sox couldn't dent the scoreboard at all Saturday night at Centene Stadium. But C.J. Retherford took care of that here Sunday afternoon with one big home run cut.

And now the Sox are most definitely back in the swing of things.

Retherford's leadoff homer in the top of the first inning, a shot to left-center that bounced off the scoreboard here at Kindrick Legion Field, erased all memory of Saturday's shutout loss and sparked the White Sox to a 5-1 victory over the Helena Brewers in the second game of the best-of-three series for the Pioneer League's Northern Division crown.
Jimmy Gallagher followed Retherford's blast with a two-run shot later in the first as the Sox grabbed an early lead. Ace righthander Juan Moreno and reliever Leroy Hunt took it from there, silencing the Helena lineup as the White Sox tied the series and forced a winner-take-all tilt tonight at 7 here in the Capital City.

"It was important to get off to a good start," Retherford said. "Scoring early I think was big for the whole ballclub. With Moreno out there — I mean everyone trusts him — to know that he had a lead made us all feel more comfortable."

The White Sox prevailed on a beautiful late summer afternoon and evening before a crowd of about 1,000 that included perhaps 100 leather-lunged Great Falls fans who whooped it up from start to finish.

"It really felt great. You walk out there and see the support that came here from Great Falls and it was like a home game for us," said White Sox manager Chris Cron. "I think it got us off to a good start and we maintained it. It was just awesome."

The winner of tonight's game will claim the Northern Division title and advance to another best-of-three series for the Pioneer League pennant. The Orem Owlz, an Angels affiliate, won the Southern Division crown Sunday by finishing off a two-game sweep of Idaho Falls and will play host to Game One of the Pioneer championship series on Wednesday.

The Northern Division winner will play host on Friday night to Game Two of the championship series. Game Three, if necessary, would be played Saturday night at the Northern Division site.

Following's Saturday's loss in Great Falls, the White Sox faced elimination in the form of Helena pitcher R.J. Seidel, a 20-year-old righthander who was a 16th-round pick in the 2006 draft.

Retherford put the Sox on top by hammering Seidel's third pitch of the game about 380 feet over the wall in left-centerfield.

"He's a hard thrower and I was looking fastball early," said Retherford. "The ball flies here so that kind of helped."

It was the 14th homer this summer for the 5-11, 190-pound Retherford, the former Arizona State Sun Devil who set a Pioneer record with 30 doubles this year.

"He does it very regularly," said Cron of Retherford's heroics. "It was just a great, great feeling."

One out later Salvador Sanchez walked. Then Gallagher drove a Seidel off-speed pitch far and high down the rightfield line and way out of the yard.

"It was a changeup," Gallagher said. "He left it up in the zone and I was able to do something with it. ... "We were able to put some pressure on them early and then stabilize it with our pitching and defense."

The White Sox added an unearned run in the third as Christian Marrero cracked a one-out double and eventually came around to score on a wild pitch. The four-run cushion proved to be plenty for Moreno, the 6-4, 185-pounder from the Dominican Republic who was 6-4 with a league-best 2.39 earned-run average this year.

"He was solid. He's been solid for us all year," said Great Falls catcher John Curtis, who played on several Cal State Fullerton teams that advanced to the College World Series. "He kept the ball down and got a lot of groundballs. That's the name of the game, pitching-wise."

Moreno, whose windup resembles a righthanded version of Minnesota superstar Johan Santana, was touched for a run in the third. But he was rarely in trouble thereafter and yielded just five hits in a six-inning, 93-pitch stint.

What makes Moreno so tough?

"He has different arm angles and he mixes speeds all the time," said Curtis. "He'll throw any pitch on any count and that's what makes him good."

Great Falls pitching coach Curt Hasler has seen it before from Moreno, named the Pioneer League's Pitcher of the Year.

"Juan did tonight what he's done all year," Hasler said. "He threw strikes, he changed arm angles and he's not afraid. He's got heart and he goes after hitters."

The White Sox could have scored many more runs, but Helena relief pitcher Evan Anundsen wouldn't permit it. The righthander from Littleton, Colo., a fourth-round pick in the 2006 draft, entered the game with the bases loaded and nobody out in the second and escaped unscathed thanks to a popup and a double-play grounder.

Though the White Sox had numerous scoring opportunities in the middle innings, Anundsen's fine curveball provided big outs whenever it was required.

Finally in the eighth, Great Falls broke through for an insurance run as Curtis led off with a double. After a wild pitch, the catcher lumbered home on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Greg Paiml.

Curtis, who hit just .177 during the regular season and did not play Saturday night in the first game of the series, walked twice, doubled and scored a run. Curtis was in the lineup because of his defense, so all the offensive work was a bonus.

"Johnny's pretty cool back there," Cron said. "I don't worry about his offense. I worry about him handling pitchers. He always does a good job with that and he did it again tonight."

Hunt, a fourth-round pick in the 2007 drafter out of Sacramento City College, was also tremendous on the hill. The righthander worked three hitless, scoreless innings, fanned two and induced seven Helena hitters to hit grounders.

"He only has two pitches but they're both very good," Curtis said. "His fastball has a lot of run on it — that's how he gets a lot of ground balls — and his curveball has a lot of bite. They couldn't hit his curve tonight and they were just beating his fastball into the ground."

One night after some shaky defense led to a pair of unearned runs in a 2-0 playoff-opening loss, the Great Falls defense was back up to snuff. Paiml and Retherford were flawless at shortstop and third base, respectively, and second baseman Joe Persichina made several web gems.

"We make mistakes, but we don't let it bury us," Cron said. "They're not scared. They always want the next ball hit to them. Tonight was a great example of coming out and playing defense the way we normally do."

It was a rare loss for manager Jeff Isom's Brewers, who won their last eight games in the regular season and opened the postseason with a triumph in Great Falls. It's expected that the Brewers will send either righthander Robert Bryson (3-0, 2.67) or lefty Daniel Merklinger (1-0, 3.95) to the mound in tonight's all-important finale.

Cron will give the ball tonight to righthander John Ely (6-1, 3.86). The Great Falls skipper said he's confident with Ely, a third-round selection in the 2007 draft out of Miami (Ohio) University.

"Hell yeah, I'll take him anytime," said Cron. "I'll take our whole team any day of the week."