ONEONTA _ In front a sparse turnout generously announced at 501 Thursday night, Luis Sanz gave the Oneonta Tigers a start the Stedler Division leaders desperately needed.
Sanz (3-2) struck out eight and allowed one run over six innings to lead the O-Tigers to a 6-1 victory over the Jamestown Jammers at Damaschke Field.
Throw in a mammoth first-inning home run by Rawley Bishop, a pair of hits and three runs scored by No. 9 hitter Carmelo Jaime and Oneonta easily avoided a three-game sweep by the Jammers (18-30).
"It was something we needed so bad," O-Tigers manager Howard Bushong said of a victory that followed a string of four losses in five games. "We've been struggling. We haven't been struggling scoring runs, we've been struggling on the mound."
But not Thursday, as Sanz, along with relievers Michael Torrealba and Kenny Faulk, combined for 14 strikeouts while limiting a Jammers squad that had scored 17 runs in winning the first two games of the series to five hits.
The Tigers (27-19), division leaders by 1 1/2 games over second-place Lowell (26-21), play host to the Staten Island Yankees for a three-game series beginning at 7:05 tonight. Right-hander Cory Hamilton (3-2, 2.08 ERA) will start tonight for Oneonta against the 26-21 Yankees.
Though the right-handed Sanz has a live fastball and a sharp-breaking curveball, it was his ability to locate his pitches and set hitters up Thursday that contributed greatly to his success.
Tigers catcher Keith Hernandez rarely had to move his glove.
"I felt I was pretty consistent tonight," Sanz said through an interpreter. "I wanted to stay away from 3-1 counts and just put the ball consistently in the strike zone."
That plan worked well as Sanz threw 61 of his 97 pitches for strikes.
"This guy knows what he's doing out there," Bushong said of Sanz, who walked one and hit a batter, "and he's not afraid. He has no fear. He goes after hitters.
"Now that he's not overthrowing anymore, he's pitching and I think he's one of the better pitchers in the league," he continued.
Perhaps his best inning came in the fifth.
After Kyle Jensen led off with a lined single to left, Sanz struck out clean-up hitter Ricky Orton on an inside fastball. He then caught Robert Taylor looking at an inside curveball and ended the inning by getting Chris Wade to chase a low fastball on the outside corner.
"With (Adam) Wilk gone, he's our No. 1 guy," Bushong said of Sanz. "We turned to him tonight and he was fantastic, and it was great to see Torreabla and Faulk go out there and challenge hitters. We only had three three-ball counts."
Oneonta's hitters continued to show why they're the No. 1 hitting team in the league, getting nine or more hits for the fourth straight game.
Bishop got things started with his team-leading fifth homer of the season, turning on an inside fastball from losing pitcher Kenny Fernandez and sending the ball over a pair of tall trees that stand behind the left-field fence.
"I was just trying to stay quick to the ball," Bishop said. "I tried to get the big part of the bat on the ball and luckily it went out."
Added Bushong: "That was one of those monster shots right there. That was a no-doubter. Rawley's been that kind of guy for us. We kind of expect things like that from him."
Oneonta tacked on a run in the third, two more in the fourth and one each in the fifth and sixth innings.
The switch-hitting Jaime pulled a single to right to start the third. After flyouts by Jamie Johnson and Michael Rockett, Bishop reached out and lifted a soft, opposite-field single over first baseman Orton that sent Jaime to third. John Murrian then hit what appeared to be a routine bouncer to third, but Jamestown's Chase Austin retreated on the ball as it skipped off his glove for an error that allowed Jaime to score for a 2-0 lead.
The Tigers scored twice on wild pitches in the fourth inning.
Hernandez led off with a double that hit halfway up the Wilber National Bank sign in left. A Jim Gulliver groundout to first sent Hernandez to third. On the first pitch to Jaime, Hernandez threw a breaking ball that bounced on the plate, caromed off catcher Jose Ceballos and into Oneonta's dugout as Hernandez scored easily.
Jaime followed with a triple to the gap in right-center field that ended Hernandez's night.
Reliever Ramon Benjamin then made two mistakes on his first pitch. He threw a fastball that got past Ceballos for a wild pitch, but the ball bounced off the concrete base of the backstop. The ball came back toward Ceballos, but Benjamin did not cover home. Ceballos was a step late as Jaime slid in to make it 4-0.
A two-out triple to left-center by Espinoza followed by a bloop single from Wade Gaynor increased Oneonta's lead to 5-0 in the fifth.
Jamestown got a run back in the sixth, when Chase Austin tripled to right and scored on a sacrifice fly to right by Jensen. Espinoza took a poor angle on the triple and misplayed the a sinking, opposite-field liner, which skipped under his glove.
But the Tigers scored again in the bottom of the inning.
Jaime fouled off several tough pitches before working out a walk in a nine-pitch at-bat with one out.
"He's been doing that for us ever since we've given him the opportunity to play," Bushong said of second baseman Jaime, who also made a difficult leaping catch on a liner off Jose Torres' bat for the second out in the ninth. "He's earned the right to play on a regular basis now. He's been outstanding."
Johnson followed with a single to right that sent Jaime to third. Jaime then scored his third run of the night on a sacrifice fly to center by Rockett.
"We're swinging the bats well and I hope that continues," Bushong said, "because the Yankees have the best pitching staff in the league."
___
Rob Centorani can be reached at rcentorani@thedailystar.com or 607-432-1000, ext. 209.
O-tigers 6, jammers 1
Jamestown Oneonta
{"Sports agate MLB batting"/}abrhbiabrhbi
{"Sports agate body text"/}Kanaby cf3000Johnson cf3010
Austin 3b4111Rockett lf3001
Jensen rf2011Bishop 1b4121
Orton 1b3010Murrian dh4010
Taylor lf4010Espinoza rf4010
Wade ss4000Hernandz c4121
Wade ss4000Gulliver ss4000
Mnznllo dh4000Jaime 2b3320
Torres 2b4000
Ceballos c4012
Totals36151Totals336103
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{"Sports agate bat stax"/}E""Austin (13). DP""Jamestown 2. LOB""Jamestown 8, Oneonta 6. 2B""Ceballos (3), Taylor (7), Hernandez (6). 3B""Austin (2). HR""Bishop (5). SF""Rockett, Jensen.
{"Sports agate body text"/}JamestownIPHRERBBSO
Fernandez, K 585413
Ramirez, G 321114
{"Sports agate MLB pitching"/}Oneonta
{"Sports agate body text"/}Sanz, Luis Angel 651118
Torrealba, M 200015
Faulk, K (BS, 2)100001
WP""Fernandez, K 2, Torrealba.
HBP""Jensen.
Umpires""Home, Brian Debraywere; Field, Jose Rivera.
T""2:22. A""501.
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