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Friday, July 11, 2003

 

Brewers outslug Sox

By Tribune Staff

 

 

 

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HELENA -- Antoin Gray and Brandon Bounds hammered homers, but for the second night in a row the Great Falls White Sox were defeated handily by the Helena Brewers in a showdown of Pioneer League Northern Division contenders.

Robby Deevers had four hits and Drew Anderson knocked in four runs with three singles as the Brewers defeated the White Sox 11-8 Thursday night before 1,791 fans at Kindrick-Legion Field.

 

The Brewers improved to 16-5 overall and took over first place in the Northern Division with a second straight one-sided decision over the White Sox (15-6).

 

The White Sox never led in the game. Helena went on top 1-0 in the first inning as starting pitcher Matt Nachreiner threw a wild pitch, then failed to cover the plate.

 

Great Falls tied it at 1-1 in the second as Carlos Lee drove in Bounds with a sacrifice fly. But the Brewers regained the lead in the bottom of the second on a double by Justin Barnes, and three more runs came across before the side was retired.

 

Nachreiner, a fifth-round pick in the recent June draft, yielded five earned runs in 1-plus innings of work and was saddled with his second loss in four decisions.

 

The White Sox got a run back in the third on Ricardo Nanita's RBI single, but still trailed 5-2 after leaving the bases loaded. Nanita had singled in the first inning to extend his hitting streak to 20 years.

 

The Sox pulled within 8-6 in the top of the sixth on Gray's three-run homer, a two-on, two-out shot to left.

 

But the Great Falls bullpen couldn't stop the Brewers, who added one in the bottom of the sixth and two more in the home half of the seventh.

 

The White Sox committed two errors and had a few base-running gaffes, too. In the top of the seventh it was 9-6 when the Sox put two runners on with two outs.

 

With Lee at the plate, an errant pitch bounced high in the air off the plate, and Great Falls base-runner Brian Anderson was tagged out attempting to score from third.

 

Bounds clubbed his fourth home run of the year, a two-run shot that brought the Sox to within 11-8, in the top of the ninth. The White Sox then put two runners aboard, but Cory Haggerty fanned for the fourth time in the game and Helena reliever Dana Eveland got Mike Myers to end the game.