Greyhounds beat Blue Sox in battle of Austin teams

Published 11:31 pm Friday, June 6, 2008

The Austin Greyhounds turned a pitchers duel into a slugfest in one inning in a 10-2 win over the Austin Blue Sox (3-9 overall, 0-1 East Division) in an amateur baseball game at Marcusen Park Friday night.

After mustering just one hit in the first five innings, the Greyhounds (2-8 overall, 2-0 East Division) sent 13 batters to the plate and scored nine runs. Matt Cano started the rally when he smacked a three run double into right field after Blue Sox pitcher Joe Huffman walked the first two batters of the inning and allowed the bases to load on an error.

In the bottom of the fifth, the Blue Sox loaded the bases with no one out as they only scored one to take a 1-0 lead off of a run-scoring single by Duell Higbie.

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“The thing that’s killing us is our bats,” Blue Sox manager Josh Kunze said. “We had a chance with the bases loaded to do something and we get doubled off. Then we start the next inning with a walk to the No. 9 hitter. It kind of snow balled from there, but give credit to the Greyhounds. They hit when it counts.”

The Blue Sox rally was hindered when Kunze hit a line drive right to Greyhounds second baseman Nick Bowe, who threw to second for a double play. Greyhounds pitcher Dave Meyer, who allowed just six hits in nine innings, got Casey Toops to fly out to end the inning.

“That was huge,” Meyer said. “To get away with only giving up run, especially with these guys, that was fantastic and a huge momentum swing. As long as you can keep them down that’s the key. Once they get rolling, then you start worrying.”

Kunze said Meyer is a tough pitcher to hit on any day.

“Dave always looks good,” Kunze said. “It’s hard to get square on him. He moves the ball around and we just never got a chance to get into our game.”

However, Meyer said he still can do better.

“I had pretty good command of my stuff. It’s still early, I’m not quite spotting it yet,” Meyer said. “I threw a few up in the zone, but I tried to make adjustments. I’ve got some fine tuning to do still.”

Besides Cano’s hit, Matt Raso had an RBI-double, and Tim Kaplan had a two-run single in the sixth for the Greyhounds.

MEYER GETS TRYOUT

The Greyhound’s ace, Dave Meyer, recently had a brush with a Major League team when he had a short workout with the Minnesota Twins.

Meyer, an Austin native who has played with the Greyhounds for 11 years, got a tryout through a connection at work.

“A guy I deliver for is a Twins doctor,” Meyer said. “He always told me I should tryout and I told him I would if he could set one up.”

Soon afterwards, Meyer found him pitching in the Metrodome before a Twins game.

“I was throwing during batting practice right after Livan Hernandez,” he said. “It was pretty cool.”

But the 6-foot-1 inch right hander didn’t quite get a contract offer.

“They told me they liked what they saw, but I needed to work on my knuckleball then I could come back,” Meyer said. “It was fun, but it’s good to be back playing in Austin.”

Greyhounds pitching: Dave Meyer (W), 9 IP, 6 H, 3 BB, 2 ER, 3 K

Greyhounds hitting: Nick Rohne, 1-of-4, RBI, BB; Nick Bowe, 0-of-4, RBI; Matt Cano, 2-of-4, double, 3 RBIs; Matt Raso, 2-of-4, double, RBI; Bryan Toov, 2-of-4, RBI; Dan Wiechmann, 0-of-3, BB; Tim Kaplan, 2-of-4, double, 3 RBIs; John Frein, 1-of-2, 2 BBs, SB

Blue Sox pitching: Joe Huffman (L), 5 IP, 6 H, 3 BB, 9 R, 8 ER, 4 K; Sean Breslin, 4 IP, 5 H, 1 BB, 1 ER, 4 K

Blue Sox hitting: Nate Johnson, 0-of-3, BB; Joe Kroc, 0-of-3; Andy Swank, 1-of-3, BB; Sean Breslin, 1-of-3; Dan Swift, 1-of-3; Pat Wolard, 1-of-2, BB; Duell Higbie, 1-of-3, RBI; Josh Kunze, 0-of-2; Sam Stier, 0-of-2; Nels Nelson, 1-of-1, RBI