Game 32: Somerset Patriots Post-Game Notes

For a game that was scoreless headed into the bottom of the 12th inning, there sure was a lot to talk about in the clubhouse after Thursday night's game.

Most of that talk centered around the controversial play that set up Aharon Eggleston's walk-off single...so let's go through that step-by-step.

Jonny Tucker led off the inning for the Patriots, and managed to draw a leadoff walk off of Ducks reliever Amalio Diaz, who had pitched in the previous night's game.

"I was trying to take what the defense was giving me as far as bunting," Tucker said.  "I could see the third baseman was in, but the first baseman was kind of back, so I was looking to kind of push one and get a good pitch.  We saw him yesterday, but I didn't face him.  I got a little scouting report from a few of the guys.  I was just trying to get deep in the count; usually I work better when I get into some counts, and honestly sometimes with two strikes."

So, nobody out, Tucker's on first base and Eggleston comes up.  Got it?  Because that's where things start to get interesting.

"First, we wanted to get Tucker to second," Eggleston said.  "There was a lot of stuff going in motion...it was a two-seamer low and away, and Tuck got to second."

At least that was the call.  Live, he appeared to be out.  After watching the video that you can find on this blog, he appeared to be out.  But the call was safe.  And Tucker felt the umpire got it right.

"I felt like I was safe, I know it was a close play," he said.  "I knew that if I got a good jump, it was going to be close and he had to make a good throw.  Those circumstances lined up, and I was safe.  It was a close play, close enough to where it could have gone either way, but we were just fortunate that it went out way."

That, of course, means it did not go the way of the Long Island Ducks.  Kevin Baez immediately ran out to argue the call, which was done calmly with third base umpire John Ramsey, a former United States Marine.  However, after he appeared to ask home plate umpire Freddy DeJesus to get together with Ramsey, things got heated.

After being ejected, Baez can be seen mouthing the words "get it right," among many, many, many other things that were said by both men in a confrontation between he and DeJesus that became heated very quickly.

Ultimately, as these things tend to go, the call stood.  Eggleston, who has been one of the league's top hitters to start the year, did the rest.

"Brett told me to do what I want to do, I could either bunt him over or swing and get him over," Eggleston said. " So I tried to bunt him over at first, and it was a terrible bunt attempt.  After that, I was going to bunt again, but it was a ball.  I had the count in my favor, so I was looking for something middle-in, so that way if I did get out, I could still get him to third.  But I got a good pitch to hit and squeaked it through the hole."

Somerset walked off with the win -- perhaps getting away with one both there and on a Cody Puckett double in the second inning that could have been ruled a home run depending on your interpretation of the TD Bank Ballpark ground rules -- but the controversy overshadowed an absolutely excellent pitcher's duel between Sean Bierman and Mickey Jannis.

Bierman, a Kinnelon native who had his family in attendance, and Jannis matched each other pitch-for-pitch on Thursday night, with each man putting eight consecutive zeroes on the scoreboard.

"I was just trying to throw a lot of strikes early in the count," said Bierman, who fired 76 of his 99 offerings on the night for a strike.

"My catcher was on point tonight; Skelton, I think I shook him off one time, and the defense was great...if we're not getting any runs across the plate, I'm just doing what I can to keep the game close and hopefully win it like we did tonight."

Also overshadowed was a perfect performance by the Patriots bullpen.  The trio of Andrew Carignan, Buddy Boshers and Daniel Sattler combined to not allow a single baserunner in their four innings of work, striking out five Ducks batters.  Three of those belonged to Sattler, who came in to face the heart of the order in the 12th and K'd them in order to collect his second win of the season.

In the end, it was another eventful Ducks-Patriots game...well-played, close, and rarely dull.

"It reminded me of the first game of the season last year when we went 15 (innings)," said manager Brett Jodie.

"I think most of those runs were kind of early, then we battled through the bullpens.  Today, it was everybody, including the starters.  There were great defensive plays out there, including their shortstop (Dan) Lyons out there picking everything.  We made some great plays out there as well; Spears made a few good ones.  It was just a good baseball game, man.  We really didn't threaten too much; Jannis threw the ball well, Bierman threw the ball well.  Both bullpens threw the ball well.  We were really fortunate to come out on top, but obviously it feels a lot better when you do."

Mike Ashmore, mashmore98 AT gmail.com