Q-C Sports
Report
Reprinted From The Rock Island Argus
Copyright 1998,
Moline Dispatch Publishing Co.
April 27, 2003 12:05 AM
By Steve Tappa,
staff sports writer |
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Richie Moller knew the significance of his final pitch Saturday.
``That's why I backed off the mound, closed
my eyes and took a deep breath,'' the United Township star said. ``I knew it was a huge
step for us.''
By inducing a game-ending, full-count,
pop-out to strand the tying run at third base, Moller not only stopped a Rock Island
rally, but ended the Rocks' five-year domination of the Panthers in Western Big 6
Conference doubleheaders.
Rock Island rebounded from the 7-6 setback
to easily win the nightcap, 9-1 at UT's baseball diamond.
Still, the opening-game victory was UT's
first league-win over Rocky since taking the opener, 2-1, in a 1997 Big 6 doubleheader.
In the interim, the Rocks had won 11
straight league games against the Panthers, sweeping five Big 6 twinbills by an average of
6.4 runs.
``That's been a long time in coming,'' said
third-year UT coach Jason VanHoutte, whose program last won a Big 6 game opposite a fellow
Quad-Cities team when it started 2-0 in 2001 with a sweep of Alleman.
``It's disappointing we didn't follow it up
with a win in the second game. Still, it should be a huge confidence booster for our
kids.''
Saturday snapped UT's string of five
straight Big 6 doubleheader losses to in-town rivals.
Before Saturday's split, the Panthers were
just 4-18 in Big 6 play the past two-plus seasons.
Both teams ended the day 1-3 in Big 6 play,
tied with Quincy in the conference cellar with three weekends remaining.
``That was very disappointing,'' Rock
Island coach Andy Campbell said. ``We had two real good days of practice, and two real
good days of focus and then we came out and didn't do what we needed to do in the first
game. We just didn't make the plays you need to make to win.''
The Rocks (14-7) committed three costly
fielding errors and one baserunning mistake to dig a hole in the opener.
To their credit, the 4-10 Panthers
collected all nine of their hits in the first four innings against hard-luck Rocky starter
Tom DeBroeck (4-2), who fanned nine and allowed just two earned runs.
The top third of UT's order did the damage
with Moller (3-for-3, 2 runs, 2 RBIs) playing the catalyst in the lead-off role. Mark
Ramos (2-for-4, 1 run, 1 RBI) and Kyle Dirck (2-for-3, 1 RBI), hitting in order behind
Moller, helped the Panthers to a 7-1 lead. Ryan DeRudder had UT's other two hits out of
the No. 8 hole in the lineup.
Moller (2-1), who missed by a homer from
hitting for the cycle, held the Rocky bats to just two hits until the fifth.
The Rocks still trailed 7-3 heading into
their last at-bat in regulation, but got a key two-run double from DeBroeck to halve the
deficit.
Chris McFarland followed with a ground ball
out to score Luke DePron and move DeBroeck's courtesy runner, Derek Goetzl, to third with
two outs to set up Moller's final bit of heroics.
``Everything we did right in Game 1, we did
wrong in the second game,'' said VanHoutte, whose team stranded 10 runners in the nightcap
and committed four errors. ``Vice-a-versa for them.''
Rocky's Grant Snyder followed up a 2-for-4
performance in Game 1 with the same in the nightcap, highlighted by a pair of run-scoring
doubles.
Andrew Tarnow (2-for-3, 2 RBIs, 2 runs
scored) and Kirk Rylander (1-for-3, 2 RBIs) added RBI doubles for the Rocks. DePron
chipped in a run-scoring triple in Rocky's four-run first inning against UT starter Mark
Ramos (1-2).
Denver Schmitt also had two hits in Game 2
for Rocky, while Chase Stephens added an RBI single to the 9-hit attack in support of the
8-strikeout mound performance of Justin Morelock (4-2).
``I think we finally got on track late in
the first game,'' Snyder said. ``Now, we have to build on that.''
Moller scored UT's only run in the
nightcap, finishing a 5-for-7 day at the plate with two more hits. Dirck also went 2-for-4
in the finale.
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