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| IRONPIGS BULLED OVER IN DURHAM, 4-1 |
| Tremendous Effort By Former Phillies Farmhand Cummings |
| ***Click Here To Order Tickets For The IronPigs Upcoming Homestand*** |
| The Lehigh Valley IronPigs dropped game two of their four-game series with Durham by the count of 4-1 due in large part to a tremendous pitching performance by veteran righty Jeremy Cummings (6-2). The former Philly farmhand who went 8-6 under the tutelage of IronPigs’ pitching coach Rod Nichols in 2006, went 7.0 innings and allowed just a run on five hits to earn his sixth victory of the season. The Bulls’ Fernando Perez homered and scored two of Durham’s four runs in the victory. |
| Cummings' success came at the expense of Lehigh Valley starter Travis Blackley (3-4) who saw his three-game winning streak come to an end. The lefthander allowed single runs in his first three innings of work and his offense was unable to play from behind against Cummings. |
| A Perez leadoff double followed by a Blackley wild pitch led to Durham getting on the board in the 1st against the Australia native. 3B Andy Cannizaro drove a flyball to center that was playable for Brandon Watson but deep enough to score Perez from third to give Durham a 1-0 lead. |
| In the 2nd inning, much like the 1st, the Bulls’ run was set up by a leadoff two-bagger and more Blackley wildness. Durham 1B Chris Richard provided the extra-base hit and moved on to third when Josh Labandeira laid down a perfect bunt down the third base line to put runners on the corners with nobody out. |
| Blackley, who has been known to have a tremendous pickoff move to first base, had Labandeira dead to rights but he threw the ball away allowing Richard to score. Later in the frame, Blackley redeemed himself by picking off Jon Weber at first to hold Durham to just the one run. |
| Perez, who attended Columbia University (N.Y.) where he was named to the All-Ivy League Second Team as a senior in 2004, took Blackley deep with no one on in the 3rd for his third of the year. It was the third consecutive inning in which the IronPigs’ starter had allowed a leadoff extra-base hit to the Bulls. Durham scored their fourth run in the 6th on a double play ball by Labandeira that plated Dan Johnson who leadoff the inning with a walk. |
| Blackley gave way to Stephen Randolph in the 7th after allowing four runs, three of which earned on six hits and three walks. For the lefthander, it was his first loss since April 22 at Syracuse before suffering his groin injury in his next start against Rochester. The IronPigs had won all seven games in which Blackley started since he returned from the D.L. on May 19. |
| One bright spot for Lehigh Valley was their streak of consecutive games without being shutout reached 54 after Andy Tracy belted an absolute bomb over the right field fence for his team-leading 12th homer of the year. Watson also matched a franchise record by picking up four hits in the game and stole a base for Dave Huppert’s club. |
| Bulls closer Scott Dohmann pitched a perfect 9th by striking out the side to earn his seventh save in 11 appearances with Durham this season. The starer Cummings had gone 0-2 with an 8.57 ERA in his previous three starts before his gem on Tuesday night. The loss drops the IronPigs to 3-3 on their “Tar Heel” State road trip. |
| Join Matt Provence for all the action of game three tomorrow afternoon at 1:05 p.m. on the IronPigs Radio Network. Coverage begins at 12:35 p.m. for the AT&T pre-game show on flagship station 90.3 FM WXLV and 95.1 HD-2 WZZO, “The Digital Home of IronPigs Baseball.” |
| The Lehigh Valley IronPigs return home on Friday for a weekend series against the Syracuse Chiefs and exciting promotions and giveaways are planned for the entirety of the three-game set. |
| The festivities begin when the IronPigs and Chiefs open the series on Friday night at 7:05 p.m. Immediately following the game a post-game fireworks show will commence as part of Friday Night Fireworks presented by Chevrolet. Also, Fly-Away-Friday presented by the Lehigh Valley International Airport will award a lucky fan a trip for two to Florida on Allegiant Airlines. |
| Single-game tickets, new second-half mini-plan packages and group tickets for the IronPigs inaugural season, presented by Capital BlueCross, are on sale now and can be purchased at the Coca-Cola Park Ticket Office, online at www.ironpigsbaseball.com or by calling (610) 841-PIGS. |
