8/15/11-Coca-Cola Field

Went to see the Bisons take on the Durham Bulls in a doubleheader, as the game on Sunday was rained out. I got to the ballpark about 10 minutes before first pitch and took the time to get lineups off the HD video board. Andy Sonnanstine pitched the opener for the Bulls and performed very well, going 6.1 innings and giving up 1 run on 7 hits, striking out 5 in a winning effort. Brandon Guyer hit a sacrifice fly to left in the third to put Durham up, 1-0. The Bisons responded in the bottom of the inning with a Zach Lutz single that scored Fernando Perez. Tim Beckham would triple home the winning run in the top of the 5th.

In the 6th inning, I caught a foul ball that took a crazy hop after hitting the screen on the Herd’s dugout.  I had caught a ball thrown by Bisons first baseman Valentino Pascucci, but gave that one to a kid, so I considered this ball a sign of good karma. I would have caught a second one, but the ball took a bad hop off the dugout roof. There was also a used eyeglass and hearing aid drive at the ballpark tonight, so I donated two pairs of glasses my mom had lying around and got two free tickets.

Game 2 started out better for the Herd. After falling behind, 1-0 on an RBI fielder’s choice by J.J. Furmaniak in the second inning, Raul Chavez hit a sac fly to center, then Fernando Perez hit a two-run homer to center field to put the Herd up, 3-1 in the bottom of the second. It would stay that way until the top of the 4th, when Durham CF John Matulia hit a solo shot to center to close the gap to one. It would stay that way until the top of the 7th, thanks to some spectacular fielding by the Herd. Bulls shortstop Tim Beckham doubled to open the 7th, then was sacrificed to third by Brandon Guyer. Stephen Vogt hit a sacrifice fly to center to plate Beckham and force extra innings. Russ Canzler led off the 8th with a solo shot off Mike O’Connor followed by back-to-back single, a sac bunt and fielder’s choice to load the bases. Tim Beckham then hit a grand slam to left to make it 8-3, Bulls.  The Herd went down 1-2-3 in the 8th. I plan to redeem one of the freebies for Friday night’s game against Toledo.