The Black Bears have been playing for four years now and the Padres were one of only two teams who the Bears had never beaten - but the Bears finally got that first win against a very tough Padres team by a score of 8-6 on Monday night.
The Bears jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the top of the second inning when the first five hitters reached safely on a single by Mike Gennett, a double by Kevin Bondi, a Tim Burns single, a walk to Tom Ayers and a single by Kevin Gallagher. Dean Rowe would add an RBI single in the 3rd inning and the Bears lead 5-0 after 3 innings.
Black Bears starter Kyle Cetnar allowed only one hit through four innings - including carrying a no-hitter through 3 1/3. The Bears had scored two in the top of the fifth for a 7-0 lead but the Padres bats came alive in the bottom half of the fifth sending the message that they would not go down without a fight. The scoring began rather harmlessly on the lone error committed by the Bears but Tracy LaFountain delivered a one out screaming line-drive single and advanced on the throw to home plate trying to prevent a run. LaFountain advanced to 3B on a wild pitch but it mattered not because Jake Maye laced a single scoring LaFountain. Maye would score when Matt Swan crushed a booming double to left-centerfield; Tom Smith followed Maye with a sharp single to right-centerfield and the score stood 7-4 after five innings of play.
After shutting down the Bears offense in the sixth, the Padres scored twice in the sixth on a hard line-drive single by Erik Miller and a screaming line-drive triple to right field by Chuck Jasinski who scored on an RBI groundout by Josh Whipple and the score was 7-6 after six.
The Bears managed a run in the top of the seventh on five straight singles by Kevin Gallagher, Patrick O'Sullivan, Kyle Cetnar, Darren Foote and J.J. Jeanette - however, two baserunning mistakes in the inning would prevent further scoring and the Bears entered the final frame with an 8-6 advantage.
Kyle Cetnar insisted on finishing what he started, but the Padres would get a leadoff hit by Matt Swan on a sharp line-drive. Up stepped Tom Smith who smashed a hard grounder that Black Bears shortstop Darren Foote made an excellent play on who flipped to J.J. Jeanette; who, in turn stood tall with a runner bearing down on him and threw a strike to Kevin Bondi for a 6-4-3 double play which seemed to settle down Cetnar. Cetnar finished it off with a groundout to second base and closed out the Padres.
For the Black Bears, Mike Gennett, Kevin Bondi and Tom Ayers all collected two hits; Ayers and Patrick O'Sullivan had 2 and 3 RBI respectively. J.J. Jeanette, Mike Gennett, Rob Bialkowski and Tim Burns all had stolen bases and Kevin Bondi had the lone extra-base hit.
Kyle Cetnar went the distance allowing 3 earned runs on 10 hits. He did not get a single strikeout, but he also did not allow a single walk.
The Padres have an excellent lineup filled with guys who can really swing the bat and Mike Bisner has a great group of guys who like to play hard. Good luck to the Padres the rest of the way.
-- Edited by The_Hurricane on Tuesday 23rd of May 2017 09:51:05 AM