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Comedy of Errors Prevent D-Back Sweep

By Tom Jalana
for TJSN.com

Published: June 24, 2005

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Phil Viggiani makes his way out to the mound to check on pitcher Ed Sochacki after several errors made for a very long inning.

Phil Viggiani makes his way out to the mound to check on pitcher Ed Sochacki after several errors made for a very long inning.

The Evergreen Park Diamondbacks spilt Sunday’s doubleheader against the Chicago Strays in front of a crowd of 26 people at the West Cicero Sports Complex. The series marks the fourth time the Diamondbacks failed to sweep their opponent this season.

“We are not playing good, fundamental baseball,” said Manager Joe Cipolla. “We need to make the routine plays. It’s a simple game: you hit the ball, you catch the ball and you throw the ball – we have to do all three to be successful,” he said.

The Diamondbacks got off to a shaky start in the first game, committing three errors in the first inning that led to three unearned runs by the Strays. Pitcher Ed Sochacki, first baseman Ted Andrysiak and short stop Pete Gubricky made their contributions to the team’s league-worst fielding percentage.

“It’s a crap shoot out there. It seems we make one out of three plays,” said Andrysiak.

Fortunately, the Diamondback offense responded with six runs and the team’s defense stepped up over the next six innings. Sochacki (2-2) recorded his second win of the season by limiting the Strays to five hits and walking none over the seven-inning complete game. He also failed to record a strikeout. “After the first inning, the defense was there. It was solid. They made the 18 plays that needed to be made,” said Sochacki.

In game two, the Diamondbacks would not be quite as lucky. Nine errors were made over the course of the game that led to 14 unearned Stray runs.

“Thank the Lord that my high school isn’t grading this performance,” said perennial rookie Phil Viggianni, who led the Diamondbacks with three errors.

The D-backs did put up a fight with their bats as Ryan Flood and Thad Sochacki homered, cutting the lead at one point to three runs. A dramatic comeback fell three runs and two feet shy in the bottom of the seventh as clean-up man Eric Lovitsch flew out to deep right-center with the bases loaded for the final out of the game.

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