Peaches; Breakfast, Lunch, & Dinner
The hex continuesThe Vancouver Grey Sox were riding a 14 game winning streak heading into this weekends exhibition series against the Portland Merchants.
They had also never beaten Mike Piechnik, who was slated to suit up and face them in game one.
Something had to give, and at the end of the two game set on Saturday – the Sox record had slipped to 14-2 and Piechnik’s unbeaten record against the Sox still stands.
The veteran lefty mixed a mid 70’s rise ball with a variety of “down” pitches that had the Sox fooled for most of the day.
Game one saw Rick Smith and Mike Piechnik in a classic pitcher’s battle, which was finally settled when Smitty hung a change-up to Portland catcher Rob Gehrke, who drove in two runs to finish the scoring at 3-1 for Portland.
Smitty finished with 7 strikeouts while surrendering 6 hits. He was relieved by Nick Underhill for the 7th inning, who struck out two and did not allow a hit.
Peaches finished with 7 strikeouts and gave up just 2 hits. Bahler surrendered 3 hits in his one inning of work.
In game two, the Portland bats came alive as they struck for 10 hits against Underhill, who went the distance for the Sox but only struck out 3.
Peaches continued his dominance of the Sox again strucking out 7, while allowing 8 hits.
Portland was bitten by the injury bug and the Sox had to lend catcher Kris Waverick to the southern squad to complete the 2nd game. “Waves” was instrumental in the win as he went 2 for 3 including a home run to center field against his mate Nick Underhill.