Published: July 22, 2009 12:00 am      

Tigers sloppy in loss

ONEONTA _ It seemed everything went wrong for the Oneonta Tigers on Tuesday.

Oneonta pitching allowed 11 hits and its defense committed two errors in a 7-4 New York-Penn League loss to the Batavia Muckdogs in front of an announced crowd of 609 at Damaschke Field.

O-Tigers pitching also walked six batters and gave up three hits on 0-2 counts.

"Lately, that's what we've been doing," O-Tigers manager Howard Bushong said. "We walk way too many, and we've not gotten good play in the middle infield. We're just struggling in those two areas right now.

"And, we're not consistent with the bat," Bushong said. "It's a total team deal. We got beat tonight. They didn't walk a guy and they didn't make an error. They forced us to have to earn everything that we got. That's how you play the game. My hat is off to them. They beat us tonight. It was a pretty solid whipping, really."

The O-Tigers (17-12) close a three-game set with Batavia at 7:05 p.m. today. Clemente Mendoza (3-1, 2.95 ERA) is set to start for the Tigers.

Oneonta remained in first place in the Stedler Division, holding a 1 1/2 game lead over Vermont. The Lake Monsters (16-14) were postponed Tuesday against Brooklyn.

Cory Hamilton (2-1), making his first start, struggled for Oneonta, giving up four runs (two earned) on six hits over four innings. He walked three and struck out one.

Batavia (16-16) got to Hamilton early as Ryde Rodriguez (3-for-4) and Luis De La Cruz singled to put runners on first and second in the second inning. After Hamilton walked Jairo Martinez to load the bases, Beau Riportella hit into a fielder's choice grounder to first. Oneonta first baseman Rawley Bishop forced Martinez as Rodriguez scored and De La Cruz went to third.

Hamilton got out of further trouble by getting Ryan Jackson to fly out to right and D'Marcus Ingram to ground out to second.

But more trouble found Hamilton in the third.

With one out, Alan Ahmady hit a sharp grounder to short that went off the left shoulder of Jimmy Gulliver for an error. Xavier Scruggs then hit one to the hole at short, which Gulliver grabbed and threw to first for the out. Ahmady went to second on the play. After Hamilton hit Rodriguez to put runners on first and second, De La Cruz tripled to the gap in right-center to score Ahmady and Rodriguez for a 3-0 lead.

The Muckdogs made it 4-0 in the fourth when Ingram walked, and stole second and third. After Vasquez walked, Ahmady singled to left, scoring Ingram.

Oneonta got back into it in the fifth.

Wade Gaynor struck out to start the inning, but reached on a wild pitch by Christopher Corrigan. Matthew Mansilla then grounded to third and Gaynor was forced out at second. Gulliver followed with a single to right to put runners on first and second. Mansilla scored and Gulliver went to second when Chris Sedon singled to center.

After Jamie Johnson popped out to third for the second out, another wild pitch by Corrigan allowed Gulliver to reach third and Sedon to second.

Michael Rockett then singled to left, scoring Gulliver and Sedon to make it 4-3.

"They definitely brought a good pitching staff to the table today," Rockett said. "(Corrigan) came in and was hitting his spots and was doing pretty well. It took us a while to get rolling on the offensive side as well.

"I was just battling at the plate," he said. "He had me 0-2 and I got it to 1-2. And then he just left a slider up and I was able to hit a seeing-eye single."

Batavia scored a run in each of the six, seventh and eighth innings. Its final run in the eighth came on an RBI triple by Vasquez with no outs. Oneonta pitcher Mike LaLuna got Vasquez down 0-2 before the Batavia second baseman lined the ball to right-center.

"Those 0-2 spots, that's pitching," Bushong said. "That's going to happen sometimes, but I think it happened three or four times tonight. That's our pitchers' faults and that's our fault. We have to do a better job and we will."

Oneonta got its final run in the ninth. John Murrian doubled and scored on a one-out single from Mansilla.

"We're going to have those (games) throughout the season," Rockett said. "There's going to be ups and downs. We're just going to learn from this and move on."

Muckdogs 7, O-Tigers 4

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___

P.J. Harmer can be reached at pharmer@thedailystar.com or 607-432-1000, ext. 229.