Tacoma’s Offense Too Much for RedHawks

Originally Published: May 25, 2010 8:46 AM CDT

Dave Carty
Oklahoma Sports Staff Writer

TACOMA, Washington -- Oklahoma City RedHawks left-hander Michael Ballard struggled to get hitters out and couldn’t escape the fifth inning as the Tacoma Rainiers jumped on the RedHawks, 7-3 in their series opener.

Rainiers’ manager Daren Brown, a Holdenville native, was content to play some small ball for his first couple of runs.

Third baseman Matt Mangini opened the scoring with a sacrifice fly in the second, scoring Mike Carp. Later in the inning, Ezequiel Carrera laid down a sacrifice bunt to score fellow outfielder Greg Halman to make the score 2-0.

In the third inning, Tacoma (22-21) designated hitter Tommy Everidge provided two much louder runs, crushing a pitch high in the zone for a two-run home run.

Oklahoma City (24-21) answered back with three runs in the top of the fifth to narrow the gap. Ryan Garko smacked a double to right field, scoring Brandon Boggs. Center fielder Craig Gentry knocked in two more runs with his third triple of the season, edging closer at 4-3.

But from there, Tacoma would score four unanswered runs.

One run came on a Carp sacrifice fly in the bottom of the fifth, scoring Jack Hannahan to make it 5-3.

Two innings later, Everidge put the nail in the coffin with a two-run double. The DH finished the contest going 2-for-3 with four RBI.

Tacoma left-hander Chris Seddon earned his fourth win in the six-inning-effort while Ballard was stuck with his third loss.

The two teams hit the diamond again at 9 p.m. CDT.