Parraz' Cycle Not Enough
July 26, 2007 - South Atlantic League (SAL1)
Lexington Legends News Release
It was "The Bald and the Beautiful" night at Applebee's Park on Thursday night, and the Legends wanted to give everyone in the stands a chance to experience pattern baldness. Those who didn't elect to shave their heads at the gate in order to gain free admission had almost certainly experienced some form of hair loss by the end of the fourteen-inning affair. Jordan Parraz made the wait worthwhile, hitting for the first cycle in the Legends' seven-year history. In the end, however, Lexington fell 6-5 to Lakewood.
The Legends were down four runs before their first at bat. Lakewood batted around against Doug Arguello in the first, aided by two errors in the Legends' middle infield. From there, Parraz and Lexington began chipping away. Parraz tripled leading off the second, and scored on Sapp's ground ball. In the fourth, Parraz struck again, doubling with one out. Sapp was able to drive him home once more, this time on a single up the middle.
The BlueClaws tacked on another run in the fifth when Julian Williams was hit by a pitch and scored on Gus Milner's double to center. That made the score 5-2, but Lakewood would not advance a runner past second base for the next eight innings.
In the eighth, Lakewood starter Sergio Escalona gave way to reliever Brian Schlitter. That turned out to be one of the most fateful decisions of the evening. Escalona had thrown seven innings of two-run, five-hit baseball. He received a no-decision when Parraz belted a two-out, three-run blast down the left-field line. The only question off the bat was whether the ball would stay fair.
Meanwhile, Doug Arguello gave way to Santo Luis after seven stellar innings of work. He yielded five runs (two earned) on five hits and two walks while striking out four. Luis improved on that, retiring nine straight and striking out four in a row during one stretch after Williams doubled off him when he entered the game.
With the game tied in the bottom of the ninth, Greg Buchanan belted a long fly into the dimly-lit portion of the outfield in left-center. C.J. Henry Jr. and Quintin Berry converged on the ball. With neither outfielder wanting the ball to drop for a potential game-winning hit, they collided, banging knees together. Almost miraculously, Henry made the catch for the inning's second out.
Kyle DeYoung entered the game for Luis in the tenth, and continued the string of perfect baseball. After twelve innings, eighteen consecutive BlueClaws had been retired by Lexington pitching.
That streak ended promptly with the first batter of the thirteenth. Sergio Severino relieved DeYoung, and Adrian Cardenas dropped a single down the left-field line leading off the inning. Doug Morales, the next hitter, bunted back to Severino, and he turned a double play to erase the baserunner.
In the fourteenth, however, Severino wasn't so fortunate. Welinson Baez tripled high off the wall in right-center with one out, and came home with the go-ahead run on a sacrifice fly to the wall in left. Brandon Caipen could only watch from the warning track as Baez trotted home.
The bottom of the inning brought both good news and bad. Needing only a single for the cycle, Parraz delivered, hitting a hard grounder through the left side of the infield and receiving a standing ovation from the crowd. Max Sapp followed with a sacrifice to advance Parraz to second, but Koby Clemens flew out to put a cap on his 0-for-6 performance and Greg Buchanan hit a meek grounder to first to end the four-hour contest.
The Legends will try to bounce back tomorrow at 7:05 p.m. Casey Hudspeth (5-5, 4.92) will square off against Darren Byrd (5-8, 4.86) on Bike Night.
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South Atlantic League Stories from July 26, 2007
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