G-Braves Woes Continue in Loss

Great pitching and timely hitting keyed the Lehigh Valley IronPigs 4-0 victory over the Thursday night in the final game of the four game series. Three Lehigh pitchers combined to shutout the Braves on three hits and Jeff Larish and Brandon Moss each hit home runs in the victory.

With a lineup full of former major leaguers, the IronPigs looked to take advantage of the G-Braves. Lehigh's starting nine had eight who had played in the major leagues at one time or another. One would have thought it would be a blowout as Lehigh won the two games in the series by a 20-2 combined score while Gwinnett won 7-2 on Tuesday. The Gwinnett Braves were hoping to even the series at 2-2. Gwinnett had split a series with this squad last week at Lehigh Valley. But Thursday at , the IronPigs took a 4-0 victory as the G-Braves have been shutout twice in the last two games and haven't scored the last 18 innings.

Jeff Larish started the scoring in the top of the fourth with a solo home run, his 11th of the year and third of the series to give the IronPigs a 1-0 lead. In the top of the fifth, pitcher Ryan Feierabend (4-2, 6.04 ERA) started the inning with a double moved to second on a sacrifice by Scott Posednik and was at third with two outs when Loganville resident Brandon Moss hit his seventh home run of the season for a 3-0 Lehigh lead. Feierabend was in complete control as he allowed one infield single to Mauro Gomez through the first four innings. He had retired 10 in a row until Brandon Hicks drew a one out single in the fifth inning. But again, Feierabend retired the next two.

Stephen Shell replaced Braves starter Erik Cordier (0-1) in the sixth but the Braves could not rally. Shell was able to keep the deficit at 3-0 but the Braves' bats were cold all night. Feierabend was replaced in the seventh by Juan Perez. Scott Mathieson held the Braves in check in the eighth. J.C. Boscan picked up a single for the Braves third hit of the game in the inning but he retired the Braves in order in the ninth. The IronPigs had retired 10 in a row for the second time in the game as Gwinnett had only 30 at bats for the game.

Lehigh picked up another run in the top of the ninth as John Suomi singled, went to second on a wild pitch, moved to third on a groundout and scored on a foul ball sacrifice fly by Rich Thompson to increase the lead to 4-0.

"We faced great pitching last night," said manager Dave Brundage. "We have to make adjustments and learn to make adjustments. We also have to know what we are doing on an 0-2 count. Erik can pitch at this level he just has to learn." Brundage felt that his pitching was good enough in the game but just didn't make the adjustments from the 8-0 loss on Wednesday to the 4-0 loss on Thursday.

The Gwinnett Braves are back in action on Friday night at Coolray as they take on . Gwinnett falls to 26-27, the first time they are under. 500 since they were 1-2 to start the season.